Star Trek: Privateer
by mojo2722
Summary: The U.S.S. Hydra, a defiant class starship, may have belonged to the federation before, but it is now in the hands of a band of privateers that will make a more profitable use of it. Please R/R and above all else enjoy!
1. Default Chapter

DISCLAIMER:  
  
"Star Trek" and all associated names and characters, with the exceptions of the ones created by myself for this story, are © Paramount. I am a fan of Gene Roddenberry's dream and just wish to keep it alive so that tomorrow's youth may gain by it as I have. This is fan fiction; there is no infringement of copyright intended with this story, nor have I written it for personal financial gain. So relax, engage at full warp and enjoy!

Star Trek: Privateer

By

Mojo2722

The bridge of the U.S.S. Hydra, a defiant class starship, had been dark for several years. Decommissioned and set for salvage in a remote starfleet boneyard, its corridors and rooms hadn't seen visitors in many years. That is why they picked it. It had been decommissioned, but not yet dismantled. It was still a fully functional starship.

The bright blue shimmer of a couple of transporter beams cut through the darkness for a brief moment. Two people materialized just in front of the main view screen, one human and one ferengi.

"Well at least we know the air is breathable." The ferengi male spoke up. He turned on a hand torch that he was carrying to add a bit of light to the pitch-black room. He walked over to the consoles at the aft of the bridge and began to tap at the black screen, waking the LCARS system up from its long slumber. He looked over to the human male, who had walked over to the captain's chair in the center of the room, and said, "I can have the lights and life support up and running in just a few seconds, captain."

"Make it quick. We only have about a twenty-minute window before the watch station's computers will come out of the loop we put them in and detect our activity. When that happens I hope to have this ship half way to the next system." He said, brushing the dust off of the control panels built into the captain's chair.

The lights to the bridge came to life with a flicker, and the LCARS systems came to life on all the workstations of the bridge. The ferengi looked over to the captain briefly, turned back to the station he was at, continued to work it, and said, "Well it's not my work you need to worry about, I can have all the secondary systems up in half that time. If your miracle worker of an engineer can't deliver on his promise of being able to cold start those engines in record time, we will all be sitting here dead in space with a half a dozen patrol craft around us with their phasers locked on."

"Don't worry Quarn, she's the best engineer I could possible swindle away from starfleet." He replied. He turned away from the ferengi, held his wrist communicator up to his mouth and spoke, "Okay, how are things going down there, Nancy?"

A woman's agitated voice replied over the communicator, "Doing okay, but there is a hell of a lot less deuterium in the tanks have than what our informant told us, I have the RCS thrusters online, and will have the fusion reactors online in several minutes, Captain Roberts"

Roberts looked back towards Quarn who was still busy at the aft consoles getting the ships systems all restarted from their long wait. He lowered his voice as not to let Quarn hear, and asked, "What about the warp engines, Nancy?"

"She replied I can't start them up until I get the fusion reactors up, and I can't get them running if I am chatting with you. So don't call me, I'll call you." she replied.

Captain Roberts was a getting a little bit nervous, they needed to have everything go according to plan if they were to get away with stealing one of starfleet's derelict space craft out from underneath their noses. He had invested all he had in this venture. The cost of the informants, the hiring of a crew, not even to mention buying discrete passage on a ferengi shuttle to get them there had wiped out every last slip of latinum that he had.

"Pinch my lobes!" Quarn cursed, he beat the control panel of the console with his fist. He boar his jagged teeth and let out a growl. "Well that is just perfect." He added with sarcastic tones. Looking over to Captain Roberts, he continued, "Well do you want the bad news, or the even worse news first?"

"Talk to me." Captain Roberts responded, as he walked towards the aft stations where Quarn stood in disgust.

"Well the bad news is that the command override codes we got from our informant are out of date. This means that even if your miracle woman can get the engines up on time, we would still be dead in the water as navigation, defense, weapons controls, and just about everything else that would come in handy to make a getaway are not in our control. The even worse news is that the sensors are working."

"How is the fact that the sensors are operational a bad thing?" the captain asked. He walked up to the console next to the one that Quarn was working at and began to work the LCARS system for every backdoor that he knew.

"I didn't say it was a bad thing, I said that it was even worse." Quarn casually replied, turning back to the console and following the captain's suit.

Hitting all dead-ends in trying to override the security protocols, the captain kept working away at the controls. He calmly asked with a single bead of sweat rolling down his forehead, "How is that, Quarn?"

"Well apparently whoever you paid off to feed that virus into the watch station's computer, must have gotten a better counter offer. Our window of opportunity just closed."

The captain stopped working the LCARS system over, turned to Quarn and asked, "You aren't telling me what I think you're telling me are you?"

"In about four minutes you will be able to tell if I am a liar or not. Four minutes at their current speed that is." He answered. Not looking up from his console and still working at a maddening pace, he reached into his pocket and fished out an isolinear optical chip. "Lucky for you, when you hired me I come prepared. Catch!" Quarn said, tossing the isolinear chip to Captain Roberts.

Captain Roberts caught the chip and asked, "Where does this go?"

Without looking and now using both hands to work the console, Quarn replied, "Well it's not a suppository, hoo-man, so I would suggest pulling the lower access panel off of the terminal in front of you, and pulling the L seventeen chip out and replacing it with that."

Captain Roberts hit the floor on his knees, and quickly pulled the access panel off throwing it out of his way. He scanned through the myriad of optical chips that were all arranged in orderly little rows until he found the one marked L seventeen. Almost as in one motion he pulled it out and let it drop to the floor with one hand, and instantaneously replaced it with the one that Quarn had given him. He got back up, looked to Quarn, and said, "If this works I'll introduce you to my sister."

Quarn smiled as he worked the controls, "If this works, captain, I'll introduce your sister to oo-mox!"

Captain Roberts held his wrist communicator up to his mouth and said, "Nancy how long till the fusion reactors are up, and we have impulse?"

"Five minutes." She replied.

He raised an eyebrow as he answered, "You've got two."

There was a moment of silence that Captain Roberts knew that she must have been cursing his name, and that of his mother's. Nancy was a damn fine engineer, but a little short on the temperament side. That is the reason she never advanced in starfleet, they don't like hotheads in command of people. Her voice broke the silence, "Just like a man. Ask them for at least five minutes and all they can give you is two!"

Captain Roberts knew better than to bother her any further with a response to her comment. He walked down to the conn station and sat down in the dusty chair. Tapping away at the controls he managed to bring up a sensor readout of the approaching patrol craft on the main viewscreen. They were close less than a couple of minutes away. He turned his head to Quarn and asked, "Is this gonna work sometime soon or are we going to be spending some fun filled years together at a Federation Penal Colony?"

"Relax, the federation doesn't send privateers to the penal colonies anymore." Quarn replied, "They hang them."

Captain Roberts looked to the viewscreen and watched as the patrol craft closed in. He waited and saw that they would be in range in less than sixty seconds when he asked, "Quarn? How much longer?"

"Patience makes the profit, captain." He replied.

Nancy's voice screamed to life over the wrist communicator, "There is your damn impulse engines, any other impossible tasks while I am at it?"

Roberts pulled his wrist communicator up to respond, "Well the warp drive would be nice."

"Let me guess, you need it in under ten minutes?" she said with irritation in her voice.

"Actually five would be nice, dear."

There was silence from the wrist communicator again and this time she didn't bother to respond back at all. The virgin ears of the computer must have been getting an earful in engineering from her right then.

The ships were seconds away and Roberts knew that they probably wouldn't be in too nice of a mood when they arrived. The patrol craft were single seat fighters/escorts that had enough firepower to heavily damage and even destroy them. A prospect he didn't look forward to. Dying was not on his list of things to do. Getting rich from piracy was, but the dying thing was definitely not on the list.

Still attempting to work over the LCARS system Quarn spoke up, "There is an incoming hail, should we respond?"

Captain Roberts turned his head and looked back at Quarn. He thought about it for a moment and responded, "Sure why not, this might be good for a laugh at our trial. Put it on screen, Quarn."

"It's audio only, captain."

"Well then put it through." Captain Roberts replied turning his head back to the conn station's controls.

A man's voice droned over the ship's com, "Attention, unauthorized intruders aboard the U.S.S. Hydra, you will power down all systems now and await a boarding party to be taken into custody."

"What do you mean unauthorized? Isn't this the rental unit that the travel agent got for me?" Roberts asked.

"Repeat you will power down all systems now and await a boarding party to be taken into custody." The man's voice impersonally droned on.

Captain Roberts looked at the main viewscreen and saw that they had surrounded the Hydra from all directions. There were six of them in all one in each direction of escape. He turned the main viewscreen to a fore view of the space outside, and of the patrol craft that was in front of them.

The ship rocked as a phaser hit bounced off of the hull, if it weren't for the ablative armor that all the defiant class ships had, that single hit would have done some damage that they could ill afford at the moment. The strict and disciplined voice of the young starfleet pilot that had spoken with him moments earlier came over the com again, "You will power down immediately or we will open fire and destroy you."

Captain Roberts caught out of the corner of his eye Quarn sitting down in the chair of the tactical station beside him. He turned his head and looked at Quarn. Quarn stared back at him, broke a wide jagged smile, and nodded his head. They both furiously started working the controls of the stations in front of them.

The Hydra lurched forward from its rest and pulsed phaser discharges shot forth from the forward phaser banks, hitting the patrol craft in front of them. With the first volley of shots hitting the tiny craft it exploded in a giant orange ball of expanding plasma. The debris was tiny and scattered off of the hull of the Hydra as they pushed through its former location.

"Shields up Mr. Quarn." Roberts ordered.

"I'm way ahead of you."

Captain Roberts piloted the Hydra up and over the bones of what used to be a constellation class starship, narrowly missing it by mere meters. The remaining five patrol craft were close in pursuit, and they couldn't risk jumping to full impulse in the middle of the salvage yard. There were too many derelict vessels here, making those speeds impossible to attain. A few of the patrol craft were in the clear for a shot and they took it. The Hydra rocked, but the shields absorbed the damage.

"That was close." Roberts commented, adding, "Can you get a lock on them with the aft torpedo launchers?"

"I can get a lock on them but it wouldn't do any good." Quarn replied as he tapped away at the controls.

"Oh really, I think that blasting to kingdom come the little bastards that are trying to kill us would be a good thing." Roberts replied. He swung the axis of the Hydra ninety degrees and maneuvered it in between two excelsior class starships that were closely parked side by side. Two of the chasing patrol craft didn't react in time and collided with the hulls of the dead hulks. Three down and three to go, Roberts thought.

"Getting a torpedo lock will do no good with the aft torpedo bays, because there are no quantum torpedoes left in them." Quarn explained.

"I see." Captain Roberts responded. He danced the Hydra around the remnants of an orbital outpost that had been decommissioned and stored in the tritanium graveyard. A couple of more phaser hits rocked the Hydra.

"Shields holding at eighty percent." Quarn commented.

"That's nice to hear." Roberts replied. Roberts saw that the patrol craft were closing fast, that's when the idea hit him. "Let's try this one." He said with a smile.

He cut the impulse engines and threw them into reverse. The Hydra moaned at the radical course correction, but it worked. One of the three pursuing craft skidded off of the deflector screens, apparently damaging one of its nacelles and went spinning of out of control away from them. The other two managed to swerve out of the way in time, however they overshot the Hydra and was now in front of them.

It didn't take Quarn longer than a spit second to target them both and send their atoms flying through the depths of space via the pulse phasers. He let off a cackling laugh that seemed to echo off of the bulkheads. He then turned to Captain Roberts and gave him a wide jagged smile. "I told you I would get things working on time!"

"Yes you did. Quarn, somehow I think you will be worth every share of latinum I promised you." Roberts said. He casually sat back and set in a course to take them out of the boneyard. "I wonder how Nancy is coming on those warp engines?"

Quarn didn't respond.

Captain Roberts turned his head to look at Quarn, only to see him looking at his control panel in disgust.

"What is it, Quarn?" Roberts asked.

"You might want to check with her on the condition of the warp drive as soon as possible." Quarn responded, tapping away at the controls of the tactical station with a look of concern on his face.

"Why is that?"

"No real reason." Quarn said shaking his head. He looked at Captain Roberts and added, "But you might want to ask her because I just picked up four galaxy class starships on short range sensors making a bee line for us at high warp."

"Hell." Roberts replied. He pulled his wrist communicator up to his mouth and spoke, "Nancy, I hope I'm not disturbing you and you're not going to like this, but…"

* End Chapter One * 

Will our unlikely band of heroes get the warp drive working in time? Or will they have to make the stand and face down four galaxy class starships? But more importantly will they live to see chapter three? Tune in because this story is…

To be continued…

P.S.—the I would love any questions or comments that you all have for me you can either post them on the review page or email them to me at: mojo@iowatelecom.net


	2. Chapter Two

DISCLAIMER:  
  
"Star Trek" and all associated names and characters, with the exceptions of the ones created by myself for this story, are © Paramount. I am a fan of Gene Roddenberry's dream and just wish to keep it alive so that tomorrow's youth may gain by it as I have. This is fan fiction; there is no infringement of copyright intended with this story, nor have I written it for personal financial gain. So relax, engage at full warp and enjoy!

Chapter Two

The Hydra had cleared the boneyard, however, Captain Roberts, Quarn, and Nancy were far from being home free. There were four galaxy class starships set for an intercept course with them, and they would be upon them in a matter of minutes. The defiant class starship, they had stolen, was a tough little ship, but even it couldn't stand up to odds like that.

Nancy's voice screamed over Captain Robert's wrist communicator, "I got you the damn impulse engines in better time than any of those ingrates in starfleet could do. Now you want more?"

"Well, if we don't get the warp drive running in about six minutes you will not have to worry about getting it running at all. Many men in red suits with compression phaser rifles will come to visit you down there and make sure of that." Captain Roberts told her.

She let off about thirty seconds of cursing that would have any freighter crew running away their hands over their ears. She caught her breath and said with her teeth obviously clenched and a growl in her voice, "As you wish…out!"

"Shield strength should be back up to one hundred percent in about two minutes, captain." Quarn said sitting at the tactical station.

Turning in his seat at the conn, Roberts looked over to Quarn, and asked, "I don't suppose you have another miracle up your sleeve?" He was hoping that the resourceful ferengi would have a couple of ideas left in his bag of tricks that he hadn't used yet. Quarn used to be a member of ferengi intelligence, and his reputation was renowned for getting impossible jobs done. That is why Roberts was so willing to let him have such a big cut of future profits that they would make in the field of piracy.

"To believe in miracles would denote faith, and in case you don't know it, ferengi are not known for their faith. At least for any faith that can't be bought." Quarn replied tapping away at the controls of the tactical station.

"Well if nothing else…it has been nice working with you, Quarn." Roberts replied. He tapped the controls and made a short-range sensor scan come up on the main view screen. It would be about four more minutes before the end came. The starships were that close. Roberts had hoped that they could have actually gotten away with it. However, if nothing else, it felt good to have command of his own ship even if it were a brief run in the big chair he had yet to actually sit in. If he had the chance he would have cleaned the dust out of it, and sat there with pride as he commanded the crew that he had waiting on Flores Prime for him.

"I do have one option for you, captain." Quarn spoke up, pulling a map of the system up on the main viewscreen. He pointed towards the viewscreen and explained, "There is an asteroid field that is pretty dense located within two minutes of our current location. If we were to go into it we would definitely have to keep our shields up to avoid getting hit by a stray asteroid."

Roberts thought for a minute at what his ferengi counterpart was saying to him. The meaning became clear, as he replied, "If we did and they followed, they would have to keep their shields up as well."

"And shields up would mean…" Quarn started.

Roberts picked up where Quarn left off and finished, "That they would be unable to beam a boarding party over to take us" Roberts smiled at Quarn and said, "Quarn, if you weren't so damn ugly I'd kiss you! I definitely owe you an introduction to my sister." Roberts plotted a course for the asteroid field, and set the course for maximum impulse. When they arrived at the asteroid field, Roberts turned the viewscreen to a forward view. He quickly cut the speed and started to use the RCS thrusters to maneuver through the field. He only had two more minutes to get them so deep in the field that the four galaxy class starships wouldn't be able fire upon the Hydra without following them in.

"You know Captain Roberts, before I decided to take your offer as a partner in this venture, I bribed and called in some favors of people I know in ferengi intelligence to get your dossier for me. Do you want to know what it said?" Quarn asked. He was one of those people that could work a computer station and keep a conversation at the same time, as he didn't stop working the controls of the console in front of him.

Roberts looked down at the progress of their pursuers and replied, "Well you've got about a minute to tell me. Beyond that I will be too busy to listen or respond."

"Simply put it said that you were one of starfleet's most promising commanders. That you were a very skilled pilot, and scored very high on your tactical maneuvers review. It also said that as a child you were a bed wetter and that you could not be bought at any price. So tell me starfleet, what went wrong?"

"Do you mean why am I now stealing a starfleet vessel, and taking up the time honored tradition of a privateer?" Roberts asked, swinging the Hydra around a large asteroid.

"Yes, hoo-man, that is what I want to know." Quarn replied. He watched as Roberts skillfully navigated the treacherous expanse of the asteroid field.

Roberts brought the Hydra to a standing halt near a large asteroid. He was hoping to use it as cover. "I'm surprised my dossier didn't include why I left starfleet. I left starfleet because of my father."

"The dossier said that your father died when you were only five years old. So how is that?" Quarn questioned.

"That's very right. He did die when I was a child. He was in starfleet, and was a first officer aboard a starship. Due to a direct order from his captain he never made it home for Christmas that year. That captain went on to become an admiral. That admiral was conducting an inspection tour of the ship that I was stationed as the first officer of. My hatred of this man was so great that I rigged the holodeck so that the safety interlocks were off during a klingon personal combat program. He took a bat'leth blow to the spine which left him crippled. They were able to trace down who turned off the safety protocols to the holodeck, and I found myself court-martialed and sentenced to five years at a federation penal colony."

Quarn looked over to Roberts and asked, "So you got out and piracy was your first choice for a profession?"

"Well it's the only one that would allow me to command a starship like this one. Being a freighter captain somehow wouldn't even compare." Robert's answered.

"Well that answers a lot." Quarn replied. He looked down at his console and commented, "Looks like we've got company one of the galaxy class ships is coming into the field to play."

"Just one?"

"Yes, it's the U.S.S. Hoyle. The other three are still en-route." Quarn answered, tapping away at the controls of his station.

Roberts brought his wrist communicator up to his mouth and asked, "How's it coming, Nancy?"

Their was a moment of silence before she replied, "Well so far I've managed to break a few laws of physics, and about every rule I learned at the academy about how to cold start a warp engine. Let me guess, you are going to tell me that we only have sixty seconds before an entire armada is facing us down and that you need the warp drive yesterday."

"Well not an entire armada, just one ship. But it will be within firing range in about sixty seconds. So any chance of getting the warp engines started by then?" Roberts asked.

There was another moment of silence before she responded, "Probably about the same chance that you had trying to get me into bed."

"It's gonna take that long, huh?" Roberts smiled and began to use the RCS thrusters to maneuver the Hydra away from their pursuer. 

Quarn spoke up. "There is an incoming hail from the Hoyle. Should we respond or just ignore them?"

"Think if we just ignore them they will go away?" Roberts asked with a smile.

"I wouldn't even wager a slip of your latinum on that happening." Quarn replied.

"Go ahead and put it onscreen, Quarn." Captain Roberts said, looking up to the main viewscreen.

The viewscreen cut to the view of a woman standing on the bridge of the Hoyle wearing pajamas covered in little yellow ducks. "Okay, I don't like to be woken up for anything. So why don't you just play nice and power down so I can get back to my pillow?" the woman asked.

"My, starfleet's uniform standards are slipping." Roberts answered.

The woman looked down at her attire and explained, "They were a gift from one of my nephews, and if you make fun of them I may just have to have you thrown out of an airlock once I have you in custody. So cut the crap Mr. Roberts, and give up now."

"You seem to have me at somewhat of a disadvantage. You know my name but I don't know yours." Roberts responded.

"It's Captain Keating, and we have been monitoring your plan almost from its inception. We just didn't know when you would try it, till you did. So let's all save ourselves the bother of bloodshed and have you just give up now." She explained.

"I've got a counter offer for you. How about you go away now and we won't have to spread bits of your hull all over this asteroid field." Roberts replied, making the Hydra dive underneath an asteroid and then almost instantly swinging it around another.

"You won't make it very far just on impulse, Mr. Roberts." The woman commented.

"What makes you think that we only have impulse?"

"Because we knew what ship you were planning on stealing, and sabotaged the mains so that no one could get them back online. Face it, you couldn't outrun us if you wanted to." She said looking Roberts dead in the eye.

"Is that a fact?" Roberts commented, adding, "Well I've got one hell of an engineer who might just surprise you on how resourceful she is."

Captain Keating laughed and responded, "My daughter isn't that good despite whatever she told you."

A look of shock came onto Roberts's face. He nearly piloted the Hydra into an asteroid by concentrating on the revelation he just heard. "Excuse me? Your what?"

"You heard me fly-boy. I said my daughter…Nancy…Nancy Griffith. You know the one that you seduced into joining your little fool's quest?" she explained.

"She told me that her mother was dead, I think that you are trying to lie to me." Roberts said.

"Her stepmother is dead. Along with the sperm donor of a man that ambushed me in back when I was young and naive ensign. I am just the woman that carried her in my womb for nine months, and never gets mother's day communiqués."

"I can see where she gets her charm." Roberts commented. He saw that they were coming to the edge of the asteroid field, and that two of the other three starships had arrived and were waiting just outside of the asteroid field. She was a clever captain. She had flushed them out of the field, just like a dog flushing game to the hunter. "Quarn, close the channel. This is gonna get messy in a minute."

Quarn tapped three short strokes on the panel in front of him, and the hail of Captain Keating was replaced with that of a fore view. The last of the asteroids cleared the field of view, and there were the two hunters poised to fire.

"Well Quarn unless you are eager to visit the Divine Treasury, I am open to any suggestions you have." Roberts said bringing the ship to a full stop. The Two galaxy class starships hung there before them in space like two lifeless dreadnoughts ready to come to life and strike.

"When I tell you to be ready to set for maximum impulse and run." Quarn smiled. Robert's wondered what the ferengi had up his sleeve.

"Computer." Quarn commanded. The chirping tones of the computer becoming ready for a command sounded. "Run program: Annoyance Alpha One and transmit to the following LCARS addresses", Quarn said, as he entered some numbers into the console in front of him. Within a few seconds the view ports of one of the ships in front of them grew dark.

"What the hell?" Roberts asked leaning forward in his chair. A few more seconds passed and all the view ports of the other ship cut to black as well.

"Now would be a good time to run, hoo-man." Quarn said.

Roberts laid in a course pas the two dead starships and set the speed for maximum impulse. He turned to Quarn and asked, "How did you do that?"

"You know how starfleet has command codes to remote control systems of another ship?" Quarn asked.

Roberts responded, "Yes, but we don't have access to any command codes high enough to have disabled them. Not even your little miracle chip could have done that."

Quarn explained, "You are right captain, but you think like too many hoo-mans do. You think that you have to directly order them to power down in order to get them to be disabled. In this case my little 'miracle chip' as you put it contained a program that caused all the replicators, sonic showers, sanitary fixtures, sinks, waste reclamation, and just about every other minor system that doesn't take a high command code to access to turn on at once. This has the result of overloading both the primary and secondary EPS grid."

Roberts eased back into his chair, laughed, and commented to Quarn, "You made them blow their fuses! I am so glad that you are on my side, Quarn." The smile quickly faded from Roberts's face as the ship rocked from an obvious phaser hit.

"Talk to me, Quarn." Roberts said, making the Hydra take evasive maneuvers.

"Looks like our engineer's mother cleared the asteroid field." Quarn answered.

"Roberts's rule number fifteen, never trust a woman wearing duckie pajamas." Roberts spoke up, bringing the Hydra around to face their attacker.

"What's rule number one?" Quarn asked.

The Hydra shook again from another phaser hit. Roberts worked the controls of the conn to try to avoid any more hits as the headed down the lion's mouth. He replied, "Never try to get an angry engineer into bed with you on the first date."

"I'll have to keep that in mind." Quarn smiled. He worked away at the console in front of him, and asked the captain, "I have forward quantum torpedoes loaded, and I have re-routed shield strength to the forward shields. I have a lock, should I return fire?"

"I don't know. Do you think that our engineer would get pissed if we wound up killing her mother?" Roberts asked.

"That hoo-man female could get pissed at a tribble's coo." Quarn replied.

"You're right, Quarn. If you've got a shot, take it." Roberts ordered.

Roberts watched as two shimmering stars shot forth and quickly raced away from them making a straight run for the starship that was quickly growing before them on the main viewscreen. A few seconds later they struck and expanding balls of plasma mushroomed out from where they impacted on the shields of the vessel.

"Direct hit, captain. Their shields were damaged." Quarn reported. The Hydra was buffeted again when another direct hit from the Hoyle. "Shields down to thirty percent. Do you want me to start telling you about the Divine Treasury yet?" Quarn asked.

"I've got an idea." Roberts said.

"Those are the famous last words of a fool." Quarn commented.

"Just trust me." 

Quarn shook his head and smiled as he let another volley or torpedoes fly, "Rule of acquisition number eighty seven…trust is the biggest liability of all."

The Hoyle was growing larger on the viewscreen, when Roberts opened up the impulse engines to maximum. He asked Quarn, "You ever play chicken, Quarn?" The Hydra rocked as photon torpedoes slammed into the shields.

"Well so much for the shields." Quarn commented and then asked, "So how do you play chicken?"

"Quite simply, you head towards the other ship at maximum speed and then the last one to swerves wins." Roberts answered.

Quarn nervously watched, as the form of the Hoyle grew alarmingly larger on the viewscreen. He looked over at Roberts, who was intently focused on the main viewscreen, and asked, "When was your last psych evaluation, hoo-man?"

"The shrinks told me to stop bothering them, Quarn. They told me I was driving them crazy." He responded.

The impending collision between the Hydra and the Hoyle was only seconds away. The look on Roberts face was that of an expert poker player, not about to reveal a 'tell' to anyone. The impact was about to occur.

Quarn closed his eyes. He could almost see the gold pressed latinum bars of the divine treasury already. He braced himself for the end, and then…

Nothing happened.

Roberts laughed, "They chickened out."

"Captain Roberts, you are either the bravest or stupidest hoo-man I have ever met." Quarn said.

Just then the viewscreen cut to a hail from Captain Keating. She had the same pissed off look on her face that Nancy wore all the time. "Okay hot shot, we've tried it your way, now it is the time for the fun and games to end." She said. She nodded to someone off screen and continued, "We have already determined that you have disabled most of the command codes that would let us power you down by remote peacefully. But this is one you haven't been able to disable yet."

The klaxon of a red alert screamed to life on the Hydra's bridge. The computer came to life and said, "Attention, auto destruct sequence initiated. Five minutes until warp core overload."

"This day just keeps getting better and better, hoo-man." Quarn said.

"Do I have your attention now, Mr. Roberts?" Captain Keating asked with a grin on her face.

"Get her off of my viewscreen, Quarn!" Roberts barked.

"With pleasure." Quarn replied tapping a few times on the console in front of him. The image of Captain Keating cut back to a forward view of space.

With the red lights flashing and the klaxon sounding, Roberts brought his wrist communicator up to his mouth once more. He took a deep breath and said, "Nancy, I know you are busy…and you aren't going to like this…but…."

* End Chapter Two * 

With the shields gone, no warp drive, and the computer counting down until the ship's destruction, will our heroes survive? Will Quarn visit the Divine Treasury? Will Roberts get the image of Captain Keating's duckie PJ's out of his head? Tune in because this story is…

To be continued…

P.S.—the I would love any questions or comments that you all have for me you can either post them on the review page or email them to me at: mojo@iowatelecom.net

P.P.S.—thank you ladyshaw and nixnivis I hope you both are enjoying this. I have way too much free time on my hands. So my girlfriend willing, I hope to have the next installment up within a couple of days.


	3. Chapter Three

DISCLAIMER:  
  
"Star Trek" and all associated names and characters, with the exceptions of the ones created by myself for this story, are © Paramount. I am a fan of Gene Roddenberry's dream and just wish to keep it alive so that tomorrow's youth may gain by it as I have. This is fan fiction; there is no infringement of copyright intended with this story, nor have I written it for personal financial gain. So relax, engage at full warp and enjoy!

(Please note—Okay I admit it I buckled under the pressure of the man and edited my story for content to get that PG-13 rating. Although this chapter is a strong PG-13 and almost pushes beyond the boundaries of the CARA ratings system for PG-13 content, it doesn't actually violate it. I have done extensive research and even contacted some folks to see what the official rating of this edit would be. So if it's good enough for CARA its good enough for me! Be forewarned, this chapter does contain some rough sexual situations which may not be suitable for children under 13. Please note, although I have taken great measures to comply with the CARA standards, please let me know if you think this chapter is over the top. I would prefer to maintain the PG-13 rating on this site simply because that is what the browser default is now set to and this story deserves the readership that mainstream viewing enjoys. The unedited version is available upon request, but keep in mind, it's not porn so if that's what you are looking for don't bother to ask me for a copy. So relax engage at full warp…and enjoy!)

Chapter Three

It was evident by the demeanor in Nancy's voice that she was not happy. Captain Roberts was sure that over his wrist communicator he could hear the sound of a resonator flying across engineering and hitting the wall. Nancy steamed off, "So let me get this straight, I manage to get the mains online so you can have your warp drive, and now you are telling me that you are blowing the ship up? What part of 'things not to do during a get away' did you miss, when we were planning this little excursion?"

Upon hearing that the warp drive was now functional, Roberts immediately set the Hydra on an escape course and set for maximum warp. He held the wrist communicator back up to his mouth and replied, "I'm not the one who ordered the auto destruct. You can thank your mother for that little parting gift."

"Who?" she asked.

"Captain Keating of the U.S.S. Hoyle. She is the one who used the override remote to set the warp core to overload." Roberts explained.

"Tell the bitch, hi, and that if she doesn't cut the crap I'll sleep with her fiancé again." Nancy replied.

"Well I hope not to run into her smiling face again, so I don't think I'll be able to relay your affections to her. However, what I do need to know is if you can stop the warp core from overloading in about 4 minutes?" Roberts inquired.

There was a short moment of silence then the communicator came back to life, "This damn job doesn't pay enough! Don't bug me for the next five minutes, if you don't hear from me, I will be laughing my ass off in an escape pod while your atoms and those of this damn ship are scattered around the sector. Nancy, out!"

The computer cut in, "Warning auto destruct sequence initiated, three minutes until warp core overload."

With a quizzical look on his face, Roberts looked over to Quarn and asked, "Do you think she would really bail on us?"

"I don't know, hoo-man, she's your friend." Quarn replied while accessing the LCARS system. He looked over at Roberts and gave a wide jagged smile, as he added, "But one thing is for certain."

"What's that Quarn?"

"If she does decide to abandon us, I could only hope that she and her mother go in for some serious family counseling." Quarn answered.

"I don't think having the two of them in the same sector is safe, let alone the same room. The counselor would have to wear full tactical armor during the session." Roberts chuckled. "Speaking of the queen of the ducks, are they pursuing us?"

Quarn looked down at his console and replied, "The Hoyle is on an intercept course for us at high warp."

"How high of a warp?" Roberts asked.

"Nine point six." Quarn answered.

"Great and we are at our maximum of nine point five. That means that we probably only have a few more minutes before they catch up to us."

The computer droned on again, "Warning auto destruct sequence initiated, two minutes until warp core overload."

"Look on the bright side, hoo-man." Quarn began.

"Oh, how's that?" Roberts asked.

Quarn continued, "If it takes them three minutes to catch up to us, it will take them months to find all the pieces!"

Roberts grinned and commented, "Well at least we won't have to worry about getting the shield generators back on line to defend ourselves, looks like we will be running out of time."

"What I wouldn't give to make it yesterday again." Quarn replied.

Roberts sat up in his seat, and begin to tap nervously on the edge of the console in front of him. He had an idea, which just might work. He jumped up out of his chair and exclaimed to Quarn, "Quarn you are a genius! Access the transporters, from your terminal. I need to do a site to site transport, now."

"How am I a genius? And where do you need to go?" Quarn asked with a puzzled look on his face. He quickly accessed the LCARS and brought up the transporter controls on his terminal.

"I need to get to the main computer core on deck two. If this works, I'll explain it to you yesterday!" Roberts said.

Quarn entered the location of the Hydra's computer core into the console. "Energizing." He said, sliding the three sliders up.

An aura of dazzling blue stars shimmered all around Captain Roberts as he dematerialized. The world disappeared into a blinding white light and then a microsecond laterfaded back into focus. He was now on deck two in the room that held the main computer core. He turned around to head for the many banks of isolinear optical chips housed in the room. There, kneeling on the floor in front of the many rows of chips, was Nancy. Her long red hair was flowing down her back. She must not have noticed him beam in.

"Are you trying to reset the ship's chronometer?" Roberts asked.

She jumped up in surprise. She was holding a couple of optical chips in her hand that she had obviously removed. She turned around, and her penetrating green-eyed gaze looked straight into Roberts's eyes for a minute. She looked away, walked past Roberts over to a workstation in the room, and growled, "Don't you ever knock?"

The computer announced, "Warning auto destruct sequence initiated, sixty seconds until warp core overload."

"Just answer the question, Nancy." Roberts prompted, following her over to the workstation.

Nancy began to work the console.

"Nancy?"

Nancy continued to work the console, her strokes became sharper and more staccato like. She replied, "Yes, captain, I am trying to reset the ship's chronometer. The idea came to me when I was boarding an escape pod."

He didn't know if she actually did board an escape pod or not, but right now he was just glad that she was there. He asked, "So do you think it will work?"

"When do you want me to reset it to?" she asked.

"Set it for sometime yesterday." He replied.

The computer spouted off its ominous tolling of doom, "Warning auto destruct sequence initiated, thirty seconds until warp core overload."

Having finished changing the ship's chronometer, Nancy finally answered Roberts's question, "It should work. The auto destruct sequence and about half a dozen other systems rely upon the ship's chronometer to keep time by. They don't have an independent timing system of their own. Simply put, and I will use small words because you are a man, if this works we should have until this time tomorrow to deactivate the auto destruct because the computer will think it is yesterday."

"I'm sorry I didn't understand that, apparently the universal translator on this ship doesn't have the monosyllabic grunt language installed. So I will just have to trust your judgement." Roberts said, his voice overflowing with sarcasm.

They exchanged a passionately intense mutual gaze of anger at one another, while the computer announced, "Warning auto destruct sequence initiated, twenty four hours until warp core overload."

Their gaze still lingered and in fact intensified as Roberts commanded out, "Computer, mute audio warnings of self destruct and cancel red alert." The computer chirped in compliance. The gravitational constant of the universe must have increased in room, because their bodies seemed to drifting closer together. Roberts's voice was weak as he quivered out, "That was good work, Nancy. Looks like you saved the day again."

Her breathing was as slow and deep as Roberts's. She let the isolinear optical chips she was holding in her hand drop to the floor. He could almost smell the adrenaline in the air, and her body was so close he could almost feel waves of heat each time her pulse beat.

His throat was strangely dry as he managed to eke out, "Are the environmental controls malfunctioning in here or is it just me?"

Two words passed her clenched teeth, "Shut up!" She threw her arms around him and tackled him to the floor. Her mouth savagely attacked his lips and neck, while her hands made short work of every other part of his body. He began to moan, as she growled out like some wild hungry beast. Within seconds he felt his world beginning to rock and shake. It took him a second to realize that it wasn't her that was doing it, it was the ship. The Hoyle must have caught up to them. It had been so long for Roberts since he last knew a lover's touch that he couldn't break away. He thought to himself, if you've got to go this would be one hell of a way to do it. She had him pinned to the floor, he couldn't move. He didn't want to. That's when a blue aura of shining stars enveloped him, and before he could react he was laying on the floor of the bridge.

Quarn shook his head, "Hoo-man, I don't even want to know what you were doing on the floor, but I think our present crisis takes precedence."

The Hydra rocked again as another of the Hoyle's volleys landed home. Roberts stumbled to his feet, his body still convulsing from Nancy's passionate attack. He sunk himself down into the conn station and tapped away at the controls. "What is our condition?"

"I managed to get the aft shield generators back online, however, one more hit and they will be gone again."

"Any damage?" Roberts asked.

Looking at Roberts, Quarn answered, "Nothing critical yet, but from the look of those bruises on your neck, hoo-man, you might want to go by sick bay when this is all over with. I didn't know that resetting the ships chronometer could be so hazardous."

"Ah, I'll do that, Quarn." Roberts said with a nervous smile on his face. He tapped away at the controls taking evasive maneuvers and asked, "What is the Hoyle's current velocity?"

"They are still coming right at us at warp nine point six." Quarn answered.

"Okay lets see them match this." Roberts replied. He tapped away at the conn and cut the power to the pulse phaser banks and rerouted it to the engines. Their speed immediately climbed to warp nine point nine eight two.

"It's working." Quarn commented. He followed to explain, "They are now out of weapons range and are not increasing velocity to match."

"Well let's just hope we don't run into any trouble for the next six hours. It will take that long to recharge the pulse phaser banks." Roberts laid in a course for Flores Prime. That is where they would pick up the rest of the crew that he had hired, and with that done be able to make the Hydra ready for its new mission goals of piracy.

"You know, hoo-man, despite the days events I think I can finally smell the profits now." Quarn said with a smile.

Roberts stood up, turned to Quarn, and said, "Mr. Quarn, you have the bridge. I am going down to sickbay to have the EMH treat my injuries."

As he walked towards the turbolift doors he heard Quarn comment, "Feed your females more, hoo-man, and you wouldn't have that problem."

***

He entered into the doors of sickbay, and immediately noticed that there was considerable less dust that had settled on the surfaces there. He thought to himself that it only stood to reason that their would be less there, as sickbay had a much more refined air purification and filtration system than the rest of the ship. He glanced towards the ceiling and said, "Computer, activate EMH."

A middle aged balding man in a blue uniform materialized in front of him. "Please state the nature of the medical emergency." He calmly said, looking straight ahead.

"I'm over here." Roberts said, pointing to himself.

"Ah and what seems to be your problem…" the doctor said, looking Roberts over as if he were something from the refuse bin. "I'm sorry, I don't know how to address you. What is your rank and designation?" the doctor asked.

"I am Captain Roberts, and I am in command of the Hydra." Roberts replied.

The doctor picked up a medical tricorder off of a nearby stand, and began to cursorily sweep the probe tracing the contours of Roberts's body. "I see, I was not informed of any personnel changes. What happened to Captain Ravar?"

"I'm not sure. But if I find out I will let you know. For the time being all you need to know is that I am your captain now."

"I see." The doctor replied. He set the tricorder down and picked up a dermal regenerator off of the stand. He began to work the regenerator over the darkened bruises that Nancy had left, and said, "Your injuries are superficial. I should have them healed momentarily." He glanced away from his work and onto Roberts's face for a moment. "May I inquire as to why your starfleet medical records are not downloaded into the ships database?" The doctor finished healing the bruises, stepped back to the stand and set the dermal regenerator down.

"That would be because I am no longer a member of starfleet."

The doctor instantly tapped his combadge and excitedly said, "Security to sick bay! We have an intruder!"

"Oh great." Roberts said, letting his head slump down to his chest for a second. He pulled his head back up, looked at the doctor, grinned, and said, "That's not going to do any good."

"Maybe not for you. However, when security gets here, I'll let you plead your case with them." The doctor replied. He nervously tapped his combadge again and asked, "Security?"

"Listen I am in command of this ship, so like it or not, I am your captain." Roberts explained.

The doctor replied, "While I may be obligated to uphold my oaths as a doctor to treat your injuries, I am duty bound as a starfleet medical hologram to report your unauthorized presence on this ship to security and to whomever is rightfully in command of this vessel."

"Oh brother." Roberts said shaking his head. He had forgotten how arrogant these EMH programs were. Growing tired of watching the desperate hologram tap his combadge in its attempt to summon security, Roberts said, "Computer discontinue EMH program, and save."

The doctor had a look of appalled shock on his face as he faded into nothingness. Oh well, I would take some time, and maybe a bit of reprogramming to get the doctor not to freak out at the new crew. Roberts had not hired a doctor as one of the members of the crew he had yet to pick up. He hadn't hired one because he was counting on using the ship's EMH for the time being. He would definitely have to have Quarn modify some of the doc's algorithms and subroutines.

Roberts's wrist com came to life with Nancy's pissed off voice, "I need to see you right away, Roberts."

He brought the communicator up to his mouth and replied, "Okay I am on my way." He headed for the door and was in the corridor when he remembered that the last time he saw her she was not in engineering. He didn't know where to find her. He lifted his communicator and asked, "Where are you?"

"I'm in my quarters." She replied.

He was halfway to turbolift doors before it dawned on him. He lifted his wrist again and asked, "You've assigned yourself quarters?"

She replied, "Yes, I have."

"Where? On what deck?" he asked. 

He was in the turbolift before she replied, "Deck one, I have decided to take the captain's suite. Lord knows they are the only quarters that are big and nice enough for me in this tin can."

"You've decided to take the captain's quarters?" Roberts asked tapping in the destination of deck one into the controls of the turbolift.

The intensity of the anger in her voice heightened as she answered, "Yes I have. You will just have to find quarters of your own. First come, first serve! Do you have a freakin' problem with that, Roberts?"

Not really wanting to give up the perks of being the captain of the ship, but fearing her wrath more, he wisely answered, "No, Nancy, no problem here."

"Good. Then get your ass here now! Out!" she ordered.

The turbolift doors opened to reveal deck one. He stepped out and made his way down the corridor to the former captain's suite. He pressed the button at the side of the door to announce his presence. The door opened to reveal Nancy standing there stripped down to her underwear and a tee shirt that read 'I've got PMS and a loaded phaser…Any Questions?'

Roberts tried to casually ask, "What seems to be the problem?"

She pulled him into the room and swung him around. The doors to the room hissed shut. She answered, "There are several thousand things down in engineering that I have to get done, but I can't because of you. You, you rotten bastard, frustrated me down in the computer core and now I can't concentrate. So lose the pants, let's get this taken care of, so that way I can get back to work."

Before he had time to react she tackled him to the floor again, and began to savage his lips, neck, and body with her hands and mouth. She had his pants pulled down to his ankles when Quarn's voice came over the ship's com system, "I hate to disturb your…conference… with the chief engineer, but I just received an encoded message from Flores Prime."

He tried to catch a breath and respond to Quarn, however, Nancy was not letting up. He managed to catch some wind and muster out, "I'll be right there, Quarn."

Upon hearing his response to Quarn, Nancy proceeded to place a firm grip south of his border and squeezed painfully hard. She spoke up, "He's not going anywhere you filthy little troll! So unless you want me to come up there and rip your lobes off, take a hint, and get lost!"

"I see." Quarn replied, continuing, "So when did we have the change in the chain of command, captain?"

Her death grip intensified. He sat up. Trying very hard not to scream in pain, knowing that would probably just turn Nancy on more, he replied to Quarn in a voice two octaves higher than normal, "You had better just tell me what the message said."

"I see. Well we've got trouble, captain." Quarn began.

"Don't I know it!" Roberts replied. Nancy had let go of her death grip, and used both her arms shove at his shoulders throwing him back down to the floor. His head hit the deck hard. "Owe!" he exclaimed.

Quarn continued, "It would appear that shortly after we initiated the startup of the systems onboard the Hydra, a federation security detail beamed down and nailed most of our crew on Flores Prime. Only a handful of them escaped in a shuttlecraft. So I am needing to know what we should tell them to do."

Nancy climbed on top of Roberts and straddled him. She had a fiery look in her eyes, as she proceeded to pull her shirt off up over her head revealing her firm and round breasts to him. They weren't a representation of perfection on their proportions. However, It had been over six years for him, ever since his court-martial and subsequent time on the federation penal colony. At the mere site of her topless silhouette he moaned, "Ohhhhhhh...boy."

"Captain respond please." Quarn prompted.

Roberts didn't respond to Quarn, he was to mesmerized by the feel of Nancy's soft white skin against the palms of his hands. She reached down and was about ready to guide his shuttlecraft into the shuttlebay when the all too familiar site of a blue aura enveloped around Roberts's body. In a shimmering instant he was gone. Nancy stood up and fumed with an intense look on her face that would have priests performing an exorcism. She screamed out, "Men!" She was prepared for this contingency, however. On her way from the computer core to her new quarters, and still pissed off about Roberts's hasty departure, she had the time to enter a new program into the computer. She was an engineer, and that is what engineers do. They fix things. She called out to the computer, "Computer, run program Fetch The Bone Nancy Alpha One, and then lockout all transporter protocols…authorization…If You Screw With Me Again You Little Ferengi Bastard I Will Throw You Out An Airlock Nancy Omega Three!" 

The shimmering blue outline of a man transporting into the room slowly faded to that of Captain Roberts standing and trying to pull his pants back up.

"You know…" Roberts said shaking an upwards pointing index finger into the air, "I think that I am going to have to set down some very definite rules about transporter usage."

Her rage and her passion had her ready to explode. She yelled, "Shut up, get naked, and do what the nice engineer tells you to do!" With that she charged and tackled him to the floor again, savagely tearing his shirt off after he hit the floor. She began to kiss and bite her way down his naked chest. 

Roberts let off a moan. If he didn't know any better he would have sworn that she had been the one incarcerated at the penal colony. 

She had his pants down to his ankles again and nearly had him mounted when the Hydra rocked and shook. They both looked around. The sound of Quarn's voice boomed over the ship's com, "Mommy's back."

A look of pissed off disgust ran over Nancy's face. Surprisingly in a conversational tone she calmly said while nodding her head, "I'm going to kill her."

Roberts sat up and pulled the torn remnants of his shirt back over his chest. He looked to Nancy and started to say, "Nancy, I know you're not going to like this, but…"

* End Chapter Two * 

With the phasers not charged, and the shields barely functional will the Hydra and it's crew survive? Will the captain be able to get his crew that survived? Will the Queen of the ducks, get her revenge? Will Nancy ever just get it? Tune in because this story is…

To be continued…

P.S.—the I would love any questions or comments that you all have for me you can either post them on the review page or email them to me at: mojo@iowatelecom.net


	4. Chapter Four

DISCLAIMER:  
  
"Star Trek" and all associated names and characters, with the exceptions of the ones created by myself for this story, are © Paramount. I am a fan of Gene Roddenberry's dream and just wish to keep it alive so that tomorrow's youth may gain by it as I have. This is fan fiction; there is no infringement of copyright intended with this story, nor have I written it for personal financial gain. So relax, engage at full warp and enjoy!

Chapter Four

Captain Keating paced anxiously towards the conn. In the heat of the conflict she didn't have time to go back to her quarters and change from her pajamas into her uniform. Instead she had elected to slip into her ready room so she could replicate and don a new one, while the engineers worked out how they could coax more speed out of the engines. No sooner than she was buttoning the last command pip on her collar, the engineers had already made the modifications, and they were already catching up to the Hydra. She looked up at the viewscreen. The U.S.S. Hydra was growing larger in the frame of view. She thought to herself that even though her daughter and her cohorts had managed to somehow bypass the auto destruct sequence, they would not be getting away with the theft of a starfleet vessel.

Not on her watch, anyway.

She looked back at her andorain tactical officer and gave the command, "Target their engines and fire, Mr. Yialla!" She looked back to the main viewscreen.

"Aye, sir." He responded, and commenced fine tuning his lock on the Hydra. Once attained, he tapped three times on the controls, and the forward phaser arrays shot forth a focused glowing beam of crimson fire. Yialla commented, "Direct hit, sir. Their aft shields were penetrated, the engines were hit, and they are dropping out of warp."

Not taking an extra second to think, Captain Keating drilled out the order to her helmsman, "Slow to impulse and match speed and course."

"They've come to a full stop captain." The tactical officer reported.

She had a wicked grin on her face. She knew that they had them now. They couldn't run, and they couldn't fight. All she would have to do is to ask for their surrender and wait. She calmly ordered, "Set for an intercept course and park me a thousand meters off of their bow." She walked back to her chair, and casually sat down. Glowing with the look of deep satisfaction, she commented, "I want to be right up in their faces."

The helmsman dutifully replied as commenced to enter the captain's orders into her console, "Aye, sir. Coming to all stop."

"Mr. Yialla." The captain said, folding her arms.

"Yes, sir." He responded almost autonomously.

Following the starfleet protocol that had served her so well in the past she ordered, "Have three full security details assemble and meet in the transporter rooms. We will need to be ready to board the Hydra and do a deck by deck search for our assailants if they don't decide to cooperate." 

"Aye, sir." Yialla, responded, and in compliance commenced ordering the appropriate members of his staff to assemble.

She stood back up, walked between the two stations in front of her and ordered, "Hail them. I want to let our dear Mr. Roberts know exactly what his options are." She gazed at the viewscreen, and focused on the form of the little defiant class starship hanging almost lifeless in front of them. A few seconds passed then the viewscreen cut to a view of the Hydra's Bridge. Mr. Roberts was beginning to sit down into the captain's chair. His shirt was ripped down the chest. For a second she thought it odd, and wondered if he had required hasty medical assistance that would necessitate its partial removal or if he had been in a skirmish that he was on the losing side of. She wondered this for about a second more until her daughter, Nancy, walked into frame wearing only a tee shirt and her underwear. Nancy walked over to the conn and slipped down into it.

"That's my shirt." Captain Keating growled.

Nancy's subsequent simple use and mastery of gestured body language, more specifically the use of the middle finger, failed to surprise Captain Keating.

"Well Captain, I suppose you think that we should just give up and let you take us into custody." Roberts stated.

With an intense feeling of victory, and the look on her face of a cat perched in waiting outside the mouse hole, Captain Keating explained, "You have no shields, no phasers, and no engines to run away with. According to our sensors, you have only ten quantum torpedoes left. That might be enough to bring our shields down and cause some damage. However, I don't think you'd get more than the first volley off before I let loose with everything this ship has to offer, sending you, your cohorts, and that ship to kingdom come."

"We still have the Warhead, that would be enough to send you and your crew to kingdom come first, or are you not familiar with the design specs of defiant class starships, captain?" Roberts asked. With that Roberts tapped away at one of the small control panels on the armrest of his captain's chair.

Mr. Yialla piped up, "Sir, they have just activated and armed the Warhead device of that vessel."

Captain Keating, momentarily glanced back to her tactical officer and replied, "Thank you, Lieutenant." She looked back to the viewscreen, and said, "I don't think you are prepared to do that, Mr. Roberts."

Roberts stood up and walked forward to the viewscreen. He looked down to the ferengi at the tactical station. His casualty of a shirt slid down on one of his arms as he replied, "Mr. Quarn on my command launch the Warhead." He looked back at towards the viewscreen with a stone cold look having grown on his face and asked, "Are you prepared to call my bluff, captain?"

Captain Keating let off a wicked grin, and responded, "I am not a first year cadet. I know that you know full well that with no shields you will be destroyed as well. So don't play me the naive fool, Mr. Roberts."

"What makes you think I am not ready to die?" Roberts asked without expression.

"Under different circumstances, I might have enjoyed playing a hand of poker with you, Mr. Roberts. However, What you don't realize is that I have read your starfleet records, and your psych profile makes no mention of possible suicidal predisposition." She explained. She knew that she had him. He was left with no possible route of escape. He had to surrender. The capture of this newly rogue ship would go a long ways towards her being able to trade in the four pips on her collar for a single one with a box around it. Commodore Keating definitely had a nice ring to it.

With stoicism a vulcan would be proud of, Roberts responded, "That transcript is old. I have been out of starfleet for a long time now, captain. Five years in a federation penal colony has a way of changing a man. Can you be so sure that I just won't do it?"

The ferengi sitting at the tactical station of the Hydra looked up at Roberts and nervously interjected, "Wait just a minute, hoo-man. Let's be reasonable." He looked towards the viewscreen, and continued, "I'm sure we can negotiate some sort of an arrangement, that is mutually acceptable to all parties."

"I don't deal, ferengi!" Captain Keating snapped back.

Expressionlessly Roberts echoed, "Neither do I." He walked back to his captain's chair and sat down. He calmly looked towards the viewscreen and ordered, "Mr. Quarn, I am counting down from five if the Hoyle is not making a departure course at high warp when I reach zero, you are ordered to give them all we've got."

The ferengi shook his head disparagingly, "Aye, sir."

"Don't be a fool, Roberts, surrender now!" Captain Keating barked.

"Five."

Captain Keating crossed her arms, "You're bluffing, Roberts."

"Four."

Nancy smiled, looked into the viewscreen, and said, "Well, I guess we're finally going to get to go where we've been telling each other to all these years, mother. See you on the flip side."

"Three."

"I've stared down men with more balls than you, little boy, so don't think that your little charade here is going to fool or intimidate me." Captain Keating brashly harped out.

"Two."

Lieutenant Yialla's voice sliced through the tension, "Captain there are two subspace distortions forming off of the port and starboard bows." With a split second of working the controls he added, "They're romulan warbirds, decloaking!"

The ferengi turned his head slightly to Roberts not having the time to look fully away and explained, "Two romulan warbirds with their shields up and weapons charged, Captain Roberts."

"Well Captain…" Roberts began with trepidation in his voice, "It would appear I have a more pressing situation to take care of, before I come back to you to finish my light work. Quarn, end transmission."

The viewscreen cut back to a view of space, but instead of their being just the Hydra on the screen, their were now also two romulan warbirds flanking both the federation ships poised to strike. The federation had been at the brink of war with the romulans for several years now. The peace that was uneasy between them before was now at its last and most tenuous foothold. Captain Keating didn't hesitate when she gave the order, "Load all torpedo bays, and hail the romulans. We need to find out their intentions."

The viewscreen quickly switched to that of one of the romulan ships' bridges. A tall slender romulan male in command dress was centered on the screen. With typical romulan arrogance he said, "Federation vessel, you and your counterpart ship will leave this space immediately. It has been claimed by the Romulan Star Empire."

"This space is neutral territory, I don't recognize your claim to it." Captain Keating responded.

The romulan's stare intensified as he answered, "This space has been recently annexed by my government, both your ships will leave now, or be destroyed."

"The federation has not been apprised of your government's claim to this sector, besides I am on official federation business dealing with an internal security matter." Captain Keating explained.

"Internal security matters that require you to fire upon one of your own vessels? That is interesting, please explain captain. It is captain isn't it?"

"I am Captain Keating, and I do not feel it necessary to explain myself to you…commander…" She trailed off.

"I am Commander Teral, and unless you fully explain to me what you are doing in this sector, I will tow the fragmented remains of your craft back to Romulus as my trophy."

"I don't take threats well, commander!" Captain Keating fumed.

"Well then Captain Keating, Perhaps this will persuade you." Teral said. He motioned to someone unseen on his bridge, and then the viewscreen cut back to its former view of space.

Lieutenant Yialla exclaimed, "They're firing!"

The Hoyle rocked, and the bulkheads moaned in pain. Both ships must have fired with all they had for the shields surely were breached by their fire.

Captain Keating scrambled back to her chair, "Mr. Yialla, Return fire!"

His skillful andorian training failed him, as the ship thunderously rocked again. The tactical station exploded with a plasma overload, sending Lieutenant Yialla unconscious to the floor. Several manifolds must have ruptured in the hit, as steamy jets of gas plumed down from the ceiling. Flames began to erupt from the tactical and a couple of other stations on the bridge.

A look of angered disgust came over Captain Keating's face. She looked to the conn station to the young female ensign that was sitting there and ordered, "Ensign T'ralla, Get us out of here, maximum warp!"

The young bajoran ensign turned her head back to the captain and questioned, "Sir?"

"You heard me, get us out of here now." She barked.

"But what about the Hydra?" she asked, adding with a touch more feeling, "What about your daughter?"

"She started making her own decisions when she was sixteen. She's made her own bed; it looks like she is going to have to sleep in it now. The lives of my crew are more important than that of that ungrateful witch. Follow your orders, engage!"

"Aye, sir." The ensign obeyed, turning back to her station, and immediately laying in an escape course. Within a few seconds they were at warp and the skirmish was far behind them.

"Captain to sickbay, report!" she commanded over the com the agitation of losing in that conflict being all too apparent.

"We're kind of busy down here, captain. We have casualties coming in from all decks of the ship." The voice of a man replied.

"Send someone up to the bridge right away, Lieutenant Yialla has been injured. Keating, out!" She ordered.

Captain Keating stood up, and began to walk across the bridge to her ready room. Her XO had just walked onto the bridge.

"I'm sorry I am late captain. The turbolifts locked up in the attack." he explained.

"I will be in my ready room, Commander Evans. You have the bridge." She said, the doors opening and walking into her ready room.

As he sat down into the captain's chair he replied, "Aye, captain."

The doors to her ready room closed behind her.

"Computer, lock door." She somberly commanded.

She walked around her desk and sat down in her chair. She breathed in deeply for a second, looked to the computer terminal setting on her desk, and turned the computer its screen to face her. She pressed down on its wake up button, and the familiar sight of the Hoyle's LCARS startup screen lit up. She softly spoke as she gave the command, "Computer, replay video file Keating two two seven eight."

The computer chirped in compliance, and on the screen a video of herself, fifteen years ago came on the screen. It was a scene of a beach on risa. The sun was setting in the sky with golden reds and shades of indescribable purple. She was standing in the sand. A young red headed girl, barefooted, clad in a one-piece swimsuit, and barely a half-meter in stature, went shooting through the camera's view. "Come here you little brat!" her younger self smiled happily. 

As the camera followed her chasing the little girl about the beach, the man who was running the camera spoke up; "Do you mean me, or Nancy?"

Her younger self laughed hysterically, as she managed to catch the little red head and tackle her to the ground tickling her furiously. The little girl giggled and squirmed, trying to break free of her loving attacker. The camera moved up and hovered above them. It zoomed in, and her younger self looked at the camera and smiled. "I love you." The man said.

"I love you to, Kyle." She said taking a deep breath.

The little girl piped in, "I love you to, daddy!" She gave her mother a big kiss on the cheek, hugged her with her tiny arms, smiled, and continued, "But I love mommy, even more."

Her younger self sighed and said, "I love you to, Nancy. To bad our shore leave is almost over."

The man's voice asked, "Do you think your captain will let you have another one sometime soon?"

"I don't know, Probably not for the next six months. How about yours?" she asked.

"He's not the most friendly captain in the world. I doubt I could get an extended leave for that long."

As the little red head worked hard to find all her mother's secret ticklish spots, her younger self replied, "You're the first officer, for crying out loud, Kyle. Use your influence to make it happen."

"As you wish, my dear." He replied.

She beamed a wide smile.

"I love you." she said.

"I love you." he replied.

"Mommy?" the little girl asked.

"Yes, Nancy?"

"I think you and daddy are the best mommy and daddy ever!" she explained with a smile. She proceeded to give her mother another hug, and then stood up to give the man running the camera a hug.

Captain Keating turned the screen away from her. She sat back in her chair and with a single tear running down her cheek, she commanded the computer, "Computer, end replay…and delete."

The computer groaned for a second, and prompted, "Warning, file Keating two two seven eight has been designated read only, stated action will result in its permanent loss from ship's database. Do you wish to proceed?"

She swiveled her chair around towards the viewport, and stared at the stars that were flying by behind them. Closing her eyes, a second tear falling, she replied, "Yes."

***

* End Chapter Two * 

Having faced down Captain Keating the Hydra was left behind to the mercy of the romulans. Will they survive the romulan's attack? Will Quarn wind up visiting the Divine Treasury? Will they just surrender the Hydra to the romulans? Is romulan penal colony food any better than the federation's? To get the answers to these questions you will have to tune in for the next installment because this story is…

To be continued…

P.S.—the I would love any questions or comments that you all have for me you can either post them on the review page or email them to me at: mojo@iowatelecom.net

  



	5. Chapter Five

DISCLAIMER:  
  
"Star Trek" and all associated names and characters, with the exceptions of the ones created by myself for this story, are © Paramount. I am a fan of Gene Roddenberry's dream and just wish to keep it alive so that tomorrow's youth may gain by it as I have. This is fan fiction; there is no infringement of copyright intended with this story, nor have I written it for personal financial gain. So relax, engage at full warp and enjoy!

(note—the winner of this episodes "name the object" contest was ladyshaw. Thank you for your response, I hope you like how I worked your object in. Anyway here begins chapter five all. Enjoy!)

Chapter Five 

The bridge of the Hydra rocked violently, as a burst of romulan fury hit the hull. Captain Roberts was thrown from his chair in the quake, as Nancy and Quarn were barely able to stay in the chairs of their station. Roberts pulled himself back up into his chair and commented, "Well, I guess I shouldn't have made that comment about Commander Teral's mother. Quarn, damage report."

Quarn looked to Roberts momentarily and let his eyes roll back as he did it. He looked back to his station and pulled up a systems report on his console. He replied as he read, "Well shields are gone, pulse phaser cannons are still not operational, port fore torpedo launcher is history, impulse power is limited to twenty five percent, RCS thrusters are still nominal for the time being…we've got pressure loss on all decks, and oh yes EPS grid is down for the replicators. Looks like I won't be getting to have that vulcan soufflé that I wanted for dinner."

"Lie to me next time, Quarn, and tell me that all systems are fine." Roberts said.

Nancy laid in a course away from their attackers and set the impulse engines to their current maximum output. However, at one quarter impulse they would be unable to outrun the romulan warbirds. She kept altering their course to help prevent the romulan's from being able to get a lock on the Hydra. "Had I known it was going to end like this, I never would have let you out of my damn quarters, Roberts." She said.

Roberts shook his head and replied, "It's not over till the fat lady sings." 

Quarn worked his controls furiously, trying to regain lost systems. He commented, "In case you didn't hear, hoo-man, she already sang her last verse and said goodnight."

The ship was buffeted again.

"There goes the impulse engines." Quarn remarked. He sarcastically added, "Do you think we can outrun them on thrusters?"

Nancy was quick to reply, "I'd get out and push this fuckin' tin can, if I thought it would help us to save our asses right now!"

Quarn looked at a message on his console and said, "Looks like Commander Teral wants to talk to us again. Should I put him on the main viewscreen?"

"Make it so, Quarn." Roberts replied.

The viewscreen cut from its forward view to that of Commander Teral standing on his bridge. He warned, "If you continue to run or resist further, we will be forced to destroy you. Either way I don't care. We can find out just as much information sifting through your wreckage as we can by taking you intact. You have three minutes to halt and power down your systems." With those words the viewscreen cut back to the starry expanse of the forward view.

"He's a real talkative one." Roberts remarked.

Quarn noted, "I never have liked negotiating deals with romulans, they are just too distrusting."

Roberts drew in a deep breath and said, "We are running out of time. I need options."

Nancy stood up from her station, turned to Roberts, and answered, "We could beam directly to the shuttle bay, and pilot a type ten shuttle away from here, letting the Warhead device ram into one of their warbirds as a distraction."

Quarn shook his head and commented, "No can do, female. The shuttlebay is completely depressurized from a hull breach and the shuttle bay doors are jammed from the hits we just took. Also the explosive bolts for the separation of the nosecone are offline, so someone would have to stay behind pilot the Hydra at the target in order to use the warhead device. So sorry to rain on your parade, female, but it won't work."

"I have a name, and it's not 'female' you little latinum rat!" Nancy ranted.

"Well in about two minutes forty-five seconds we will all have the same name." Quarn replied, finishing, "Dead."

Roberts thought about the situation. A look of deep contemplation on his face, he stood up walked between the con and the tactical stations, turned around, and said, "One of us could make it."

"What do you mean one, hoo-man?" Quarn asked.

"Simple, Nancy is right. We would need to create a diversion to allow someone to escape." Roberts replied.

"Whoa! The shit-headed imp said that the shuttles were out of the picture." Nancy said walking up to Roberts. She looked at his face, and realized that there was something familiar about it. Something in the way he was looking that seemed almost familiar.

"I'm not talking about using a shuttle. I am talking about having that person use an escape pod and having the people who remain behind create the diversion with the Warhead device."

"Why would it take two people to remain behind? Quarn said…" Nancy began.

Quarn nervously interrupted, "Yeah, why two people, hoo-man?"

Roberts explained, "Because I am staying with the ship, and I need you, Quarn, to operate the Warhead device. I don't know the systems as well as you seem to."

"I'm not going anywhere, you son of a bitch! How dare you treat me like…like…like…" Nancy began to fume, unable to find the words to finish her sentence.

"Yeah she's not going anywhere, hoo-man. I mean why me? Why do I get volunteered to stay and die the profitless death of a hero? The female knows more about this ship's systems than I do!" Quarn replied with the usual ferengi love of death.

Roberts reached behind himself and withdrew a small hand phaser from a holster on his belt that was hidden under the torn remains of his shirt. He pointed the phaser at Quarn and explained, "Because she has prettier legs than you do." Sliding his thumb over the power slide to the phaser's discharge setting, the phaser chirped the familiar cry of being set at its maximum setting. Quarn had heard that sound all to many times before to forget it. Captain Roberts asked, "Do you have a problem with her legs?"

Quarn swallowed a hard lump in his throat, grinned a nervous jagged tooth grin, and replied sheepishly, "No sir, I don't have a problem with them at all."

Nancy crossed her arms and spoke up, "So I suppose you think that this macho, man saving his woman crap is gonna impress my poor little feminine soul? Well it's not, Asshole!" She threw her hands up into the air in disgust turning around in a circle, only to face Roberts again and explain, "Men! They just can't get it through their pathetic testosterone clouded minds that, even if just by slightly, a dead man is more useless to a woman than a live one. So cut the shit out, Roberts and put that damn phaser down!"

"Mr. Quarn?" Roberts asked.

"Yes" he replied.

"Beam her directly to an escape pod right now, and immediately launch it."

Nancy threw back a laugh and responded, "In case you don't remember, Captain Valiant, we had to run here from my quarters because I had locked out the transporters. So try again to get rid of me, dickweed."

Quarn smiled, "She did lock out that system, hoo-man."

Roberts extended his phaser arm out all the way in Quarn's direction, poised his thumb above the trigger button, and simply said, "Quarn."

Quarn shook his head as the smile disappeared. He replied, "I knew I shouldn't have gone into this venture with you, hoo-man. Anyone who has done time, isn't good enough not to get caught, and that is a sure-fire way to get killed in my experience. All right, relax your phaser, hoo-man. Computer override lockout on transporters…Authorization Rip My Ears Off And I Might Just Like It Quarn alpha three."

The computer responded, "Authorization confirmed. System standing by."

Nancy was infuriated. "Now wait just one damn minute! I am not about to let you freakin' get away with this!" She yelled.

"Do it now, Mr. Quarn." Roberts commanded.

Quarn tapped away at his controls. Nancy began to make a dive for the phaser in Roberts's hand. Before she could reach it, the world began to fade in a glittering blue aura. Just before everything went white, she heard the final transporter distorted words of Roberts, "I love you." In an instant she found herself alone within the confines of the cramped quarters of a six man escape pod. She only had a second before Quarn would launch the pod, so she quickly moved to the hatch and began to reach for the panel to actuate its opening. She didn't make it in time. She heard the sound of the explosive bolts going off de-mooring the pod, and she was forced against the door as the thrusters fired. She looked out the hexagonal shaped view portal in the hatch and saw the Hydra moving away, growing smaller as the pod picked up speed. She pounded against the hatch with both fists. She saw the Hydra turn in its course one hundred eighty degrees back towards the pursuing warbirds. It had grown to almost spec in the viewport when she saw it happen. The brilliant white flash of an antimatter explosion blinded her. She looked down and clenched her eyes. The flash subsided, and she looked back out the viewport. The plasma ring from the shockwave of the explosion was growing ever larger outward from its origin. Within seconds it overtook the escape pod and tossed it about. As if in slow motion, Nancy was tossed into the air from the concussion of the shockwave and was hurtled towards a bulkhead.

She closed her eyes and braced for the impact.

Her back arched as she hit the surface and bounced. Her eyes opened, and she was not staring up at the ceiling of the escape pod. The ceiling she saw was that of her quarters onboard the Hydra, and the bulkhead she impacted turned out to be her bed.

"Damn, that was too real this time." She groaned. She was sweating hard and her sheets were soaked from her perspiration. Ever since their run in with the romulans she had been having that same nightmare. The nightmare was based upon what she first thought was going to happen when the romulans decloaked at their flanks. Why hadn't Roberts just told them that the government that was giving them a letter of marque was the romulans? The romulan empire was definitely strong enough and vast enough to give them a safe harbor in between raids. They weren't really asking for much in return either, just the occasional theft of information or equipment and other assorted dirty deeds that they couldn't afford to get caught doing. For war being so close, they sure didn't seem to want to be the ones who initiated it.

She pulled her moist covers off, and climbed out of bed. The cold deck plates kind of felt good under her foot. She walked to the head and turned on the sonic shower. She pulled its door open and wiped the sweat off of her forehead with the back of her hand. She needed a cool shower to get rid of the perspiration that covered her body. She set it for the coolest setting that it would go. Sonic showers did not compare to bathing in real water, but the practicalities of installing plumbing aboard a starship were mind numbing. Let alone installing that type of a system aboard an attack/escort like the Hydra. Oh well the sonic variety of shower would have to do. She pulled off her sweat soaked nightclothes, and let them drop to the floor. She stepped into the sonic shower and closed the door behind her. The waves of the shower enveloped her and begin to drive the sweat and dirt off of her body. 

She had been getting very used to the feel of a cold sonic shower over the past week. Whenever she had to deal with Roberts over the past several days she always required at least twenty minutes of isolated venting time and a very cold shower as well. Damn that man! Why couldn't he just die, or at least give in. It was almost as if he was avoiding being alone with her. She didn't see what he was so afraid of. She was a woman, and he was a man. Didn't his mother ever explain these things to him?

Quarn's voice chimed in over the ship's com system, "Nancy, one of the romulan technicians needs to see you down in engineering right away."

Nancy stepped out of the shower, and walked back into the main room of her quarters. She casually strolled over to the replicator and asked, "What's the occasion, ferengi?"

He replied, "I think they need you to help get the cloaking device integrated with the EPS taps. They said something about the power source is not compatible with their hardware."

She tapped away at the control panel to the replicator and said, "That's not what I mean."

"What do you mean, Nancy?"

The shimmering of materialization danced in the replicator, and Nancy soon pulled out a fresh shirt to wear. She answered, "Just exactly that, Quarn. For the past three days you have been calling me the high queen of engineering mistress rags-a-lot. I am just wondering what the special occasion is today that you are reverting to calling me by my name?" She pulled the shirt over her head, and then pulled her long hair up and through the neck-hole.

"If you remember right, hoo-man, I only started calling you that after you yanked on my lobes for having programmed in a lower authorization command code for you to use than mine. I mean it hurt badly, and you try getting any sympathy from that starfleet EMH down in sickbay. . Boy talk about your starfleet mind jobs! At least he has an off switch that he can't activate by himself." Quarn replied.

"Well you shouldn't have done that then." Nancy said, entering in the specification for some pants into the replicator.

Quarn responded sarcastically, "Well, excuse me. I just thought that since the captain would have the highest codes that his XO should have the next highest codes on the ship, and that the third in command, you, should have the third highest."

She pulled the now materialized pants out of the replicator, walked over to her bed, and sat down to put them on. She explained, "I want to get this straight with you right now, troll. The captain might have command of this ship, and you might be his second in command, however, this is my damn ship. I am responsible for everything from all the plasma relays in the EPS system to every last single filament in the ODN network. If you men break it, I have to fix it. So just to let you know, I am not sucking hind tit when it comes to the command codes, got it?" She leaned back on the bed, and pulled her pants up. She then stood back up and looked around for her shoes. Having quickly located them underneath a small pile of clothes, she stepped into them one by one. "So you still didn't answer my question, ferengi. Why the sudden change in attitude?"

There was a long period of silence.

Nancy yelled, "Answer me shit-head, or I am going to come up there and give you another reason to visit the EMH!"

"I'm being nice, because the captain ordered me to." Quarn replied.

Her tone changed almost immediately. With a seldom-used inflection of innocence and sweetness, she smiled and asked, "Oh? He did?"

"Yes, he did."

She asked, "Why is that?"

There was another long pause of silence.

Her voice became suddenly irritated, "Quarn!"

He hesitantly explained, "He said we needed to be nice to you because the surviving members of the crew from Flores Prime will be here to rendezvous with us in two days. He said that he needed you to be in a good mood, because when you are to 'bitchy' you don't work as efficiently. He wants all the systems modifications done by the time the crew has arrived. Apparently, he wants to depart as soon as they are aboard."

Her mellow tones had long since vanished, "Bitchy, huh? Don't work as efficiently? Where is our beloved captain now?"

Quarn answered, "He beamed down to the surface to meet with Commander Teral and a couple of other high level romulan officials to discuss our first target."

She walked to the door and said, "When he gets back, tell him I am in engineering getting the cloak online and that I want to see his ass right away. As she walked out the door she thought to herself that Roberts wasn't going to avoid her any longer. She had been taking entirely too many cold sonic showers over the past week. He was going to either put out, or she was going to kill him.

***

Roberts looked at Commander Teral from across the conference table, looked quizzically at him, and asked, "You want us to raid a federation transport for you? Why not a freighter or something that transporting something of value onboard?"

Commander Teral's slender form leaned forward in his chair over the conference table and explained, "Oh, there is something of value on that transport, captain. Or, rather, shall I say someone of importance?"

"You want us to perform a kidnapping?" Roberts asked.

A romulan female, who was standing silently in the corner of the room, walked forward towards the conference table and spoke up, "You did understand that by accepting a letter of marque from the romulan empire, that you would be expected to perform the occasional task for us, didn't you?" She had an emotionless look on her face. It was almost as if she were a vulcan and not romulan at all.

"Yes I understood that, and I don't believe we've been introduced yet." Roberts responded.

The woman sharply commented, "We haven't been introduced, because you do not need to know my identity, captain." She walked over to a mid sized viewscreen on the wall and began to manipulate its controls.

At her unwillingness to introduce herself Roberts knew that she must be Tal Shiar, and a pretty high ranking officer at that. Only romulan intelligence would be so secretive. He smiled and responded to her comment, "I see. Well since I don't like calling people 'hey you', I think I will call you Agent Smiley."

She pulled up a sector map on the viewscreen, and blandly replied, "No you will not, Captain Roberts. You will not make mention of me to anyone, by any name. As far as anyone outside of this room is concerned, I do not exist. I am just a figment of your imagination. All correspondence you have for me will be relayed through Commander Teral, and even then you will make no reference that the information or question is meant for me." She tapped the control panel and made the sector view zoom in closer to a view of a vessel's course. She turned to him and blankly asked, "Shall we continue with the briefing?"

Roberts gestured with his hand palm up and replied, "By all means."

She turned back towards the viewscreen, pointed to the federation symbol that represented a ship, and explained, "Your target is the federation transport vessel U.S.S. Henderson. It is ferrying passengers from Sol Four to Vulcan."

"The Mars/Vulcan run? That's usually just booked by a bunch of civilians. I don't see why anyone of interest to the romulan empire would be slumming it and booking passage on that tourist run." Roberts broke in and commented.

She turned around, and Roberts almost thought that he could detect a hint of annoyance on her stone face. She asked, "Are you ready to continue, Captain Roberts?"

"I'm sorry." Roberts apologized, and added, "Please go on."

She once again turned back to the screen. She typed at the controls, brought up a picture of an oriental human female, and continued to brief Roberts, "This human female is your target. Her name is Kimberly Tzu, and she used to be one of starfleet's leading cyberneticists. She spearheaded the satori-seven project twenty years ago. Her role now is more of an advisory one to matters of cybernetics"

"The satori-seven project?" Roberts asked trying to recollect why it seemed so familiar to him. He soon remembered and asked, "Isn't that the project where she tried to use borg nano-probes to enhance a series three Soong type android?"

The romulan woman answered, "It was, indeed."

"But she didn't have any success with the project. I mean as far as what I remember, starfleet abandoned the project, citing that it would be impossible to integrate the two technologies with any real success." Roberts commented.

"If that's what you wish to believe, human, then by all means do. I am sure that your starfleet would never lie to you. Irregardless of what you believe the romulan empire requires her services." The woman responded. She shut off the viewscreen and walked back to the table.

Roberts leaned back in his chair and took in a deep breath. "So you want me to intercept the U.S.S. Henderson and 'enlist' the willing or unwilling services of Dr. Tzu?" Roberts asked. 

"Captain Roberts, we are not asking you to solicit her help for the romulan empire. Your mission is simple, get her and deliver her to Commander Teral. We would just take care of this internally; however, the tension between the federation and the romulan empire is at an all time high. The slightest mistake that would point towards us would trigger a war, and we would rather not have that happen." She answered, and added, "Yet."

"I see. Well I can be underway as soon as my crew arrives in two days. What is the timetable we are looking at?" Roberts asked.

Commander Teral spoke up, "I'm afraid it can't wait until then. You will barely have six more hours before you must get underway in order to intercept the Henderson."

Roberts shook his head, "I can't leave without a crew. Without a crew to service the subsystems we wouldn't last long in a firefight. I mean I am not worried about the Henderson, it's only a transport ship. It's the five or six armed starships that our sensors won't see coming that I am worried about. Our escape from the Hoyle should make my point clear there."

"Your concerns are noted and were already anticipated, captain. A warbird, the V'rok, has already been dispatched at high warp to rendezvous with your crew's transport, and are under orders to meet up with you en-route to the Henderson. You will have a partial crew before you face any threat of combat, Captain Roberts."

Roberts asked, "What about the cloaking device? I am not sure that it will be operational in six hours."

The woman replied, "I have spoken with your ferengi first officer, and he assures me that your chief engineer, and our technicians are finishing the installment of the device as we speak."

"What about the repairs to the shield generators and the warp drive?" Roberts asked.

Commander Teral answered, "I've had technicians from my own ship working on all the other systems. They are, shall we say, very familiar with federation technology. They will have your ship fully operational by the time we need you to depart."

Roberts stood up and said, "Well, I guess that's that then. I should get going in order to get prepared for the voyage." 

The woman spoke up, "A copy of the mission specifications will be transmitted to your ship." She turned and walked to the door of the room. The door hissed open. Without so much as a closing salutation, she walked through the doorway and disappeared into the hallway as it closed behind her.

"Charming woman." Roberts commented. He brought his wrist communicator up and said, "Quarn, I am ready to beam back up now."

"Standing by, hoo-man." Quarn's voice squawked back over the wrist communicator.

Commander Teral smiled and said, "Happy hunting, captain."

"Energize." Roberts commanded. He disappeared into an ethereal cloud of a million blue diamonds.

***

Nancy stormed into the sickbay clutching her wrist tightly. The wrist trailed in blood, and her shirt was covered in some crimson splotches as well. Her teeth were clenched. She let out a roar, "Computer, activate the damn EMH!"

The computer chirped in hesitation, "Unable to comply, no program is listed under that designation."

"Explain." She barked.

"There is no listing for a program with the designation 'Damn EMH', unable to comply with request." The computer droned out.

"You know what I damn well mean!" Nancy winced in pain. She looked up and said with disgust, "Fine. Computer activate the emergency medical hologram." She was quick to add, "Please."

The computer chirped and replied, "Running program."

As the EMH materialized in front of her she responded, "Get stuffed."

"Please state the nature of the medical emergency." The EMH cheerfully said, adding with a look of question on his holographic face, "Excuse me?"

She answered, "Not you. I was talking to the other artificial intelligence program in the room. You know the bitch without a body?"

"I see." The doctor said. He looked down to the blood on her wrist and clothing, and turned to his stand to pick up a medical tricorder. Having picked it up, he turned back around and began to scan her clutched wrist. Not looking up from the instruments readings, he asked, "Well insults aside, how did you come about this trauma to your wrist?"

"I was down in engineering, assisting a romulan technician to install the cloaking device." She started to explain.

The doctor's nasally sarcasm was thick, as he interrupted, "Great, first privateers and now the romulans. Now if only we could get the breen, some drones from the borg collective, and then replicate some earl grey we would have the makings of a tea party that the Hydra has never seen before."

"Quarn was right about you, your attitude does suck." Nancy remarked. She continued to explain, "Anyway I was finishing up the installation of the cloak, when that bumbling idiot of a boy romeo romulan decided to show the surprise he had for me. I guess that the damn little love sick bastard was trying to show me that besides the women he liked all things Terran."

"Oh really? What did he show you or does this have anything at all to do with the deep lacerations on your wrist?" the doctor asked, turning back to the stand that he picked the tricorder off of. He set the tricorder down and picked up a vascular regenerator. He turned back around and removed her hand from its firm grip on the injured wrist. Blood began to pour freely from the wound. He slowly began to work the regenerator over the wound, slowing the blood flow as the arteries were sealed.

Nancy looked down at her wrist and cringed, she never liked the site of her own blood. She answered the doctor's question, "He pulled out a thirty centimeter long lanky twisting mass of fur, claws, and teeth."

"He brought an animal on board with him?" The doctor asked, raising an eyebrow. Having finished closing the veins he quickly turned to his table and exchanged the instrument for a dermal regenerator. 

"He sure did. Apparently, he had managed to by a Terran ferret off of a bolian smuggler that was in port at a space station that his ship was docked at. When he saw it he just had to have it, because he is, in my opinion, obsessively into all things Terran.

"So the animal attacked you?" the doctor asked. He was working the dermal regenerator to close the skin of the bite wound.

"He forced the damn thing on me, like since it was from earth and I was Terran I should like the damn thing. I just have one thing to say. Animals and myself don't mix. It wasn't more than a couple of seconds that the smelly little ferret into my wrist with his fangs."

"I see." The doctor said. He finished closing the wound, and turned back to his stand. While setting the dermal regenerator down he added, "That information changes my diagnosis of your condition and the required course of treatment."

"How's that?" she asked. She rubbed her wrist where the wound had been and looked to the doctor.

He turned around with a hypospray in hand and explained, "There is a strain of rabies that ferrets have been known to be carriers for. I will need to give you an inoculation in case the animal was infected with the virus."

"Well make it damn quick, I've got to go and run some tests on the EPS system, and I definitely don't have time for shit like this." Nancy responded.

"Very well." He said. He held the hypospray up to her neck and then depressed the thumb button. With a hiss it delivered its load into her system.

She turned away from the doctor and faced the door, "Well, thanks doc, I need…" She fell backwards unconscious.

The doctor caught her, and laid her down on the floor, whispering, "I'm sorry, but I have my duty."

The doctor walked into the office of sickbay and sat down at the computer workstation. He began to tap away at the screen navigating the LCARS menu system. The computer buzzed in non-compliance.

He furled his brow and commented, "They've changed the command codes." He thought for a second, staring at the screen tensely, and then relaxed. He requested, "Computer, please display a listing of all possible ways of sending a message via subspace without having command code access."

The computer began to drone out a long list of responses that filled screen after screen. He began to read the first one, and then paused for a second. He thought about the major limitation he had and commanded the computer, "Computer, of those results that are displayed, list only those that can be done entirely from sickbay."

* End Chapter Two * 

With their first mission for their romulan patrons assigned, the crew of the Hydra will soon be off to kidnap Dr. Tzu. Why is the cyberneticist so important to them? What plans could the romulans be hiding? Will the Hydra make it undetected into federation space, or will the EMH be able to send a word of warning out to starfleet? And even more importantly, even if they manage to make it in…will they be able to make it back out again? To get the answers to these questions you will have to tune in for the next installment because this story is…

To be continued…

P.S.—the I would love any questions or comments that you all have for me you can either post them on the review page or email them to me at: mojo@iowatelecom.net

  



	6. Chapter Six

DISCLAIMER:  
  
"Star Trek" and all associated names and characters, with the exceptions of the ones created by myself for this story, are © Paramount. I am a fan of Gene Roddenberry's dream and just wish to keep it alive so that tomorrow's youth may gain by it as I have. This is fan fiction; there is no infringement of copyright intended with this story, nor have I written it for personal financial gain. So relax, engage at full warp and enjoy!

(note—the winner of this episodes "name the object" contest was Nixnivis. Apparently Nix was so enthused with the contest that she entered twice. Since the contest rules didn't specify otherwise the judges will allow it. There will be another contest real soon, so be watching. So Nix, thank you for your response, I hope you like how I worked your objects in. Anyway here begins chapter six all. Enjoy!)

Chapter Six 

"Welcome back, hoo-man." Quarn said standing at one of the aft stations of the bridge as Roberts stepped off of the turbolift.

Roberts joined Quarn at the console and explained, "We haven't got a lot of time, Quarn. Did you get the file transmission from the planet?"

Quarn worked the LCARS system as he replied, "Receiving it now."

Roberts turned and walked around to his captain's chair. Relaxed to sit down he asked, "Good. How's our status?"

"All systems are a go, and the last of the romulans are beaming back to the surface now. So how were our benevolent patrons?" Quarn asked.

The captain swiveled his chair around, smiled at Quarn, and remarked, "They were cordial, especially, that Tal Shiar female who didn't want to be identified. You would have liked meeting her, Quarn." He swiveled his chair back around and with sarcasm added, "Talk about personality!"

Quarn perked up, and turned from the station. He asked, "Was she tall, dark-haired, prone not to saying goodbye, and couldn't crack a smile if her life depended on it?"

Roberts turned around and, puzzled, replied, "Yes, as a matter of fact that is a fairly accurate description. How did you know?"

"I'm surprised you told me about her, she doesn't want anyone to know she exists." Quarn replied turning back to his console. Working the system he explained, "That female would be the reclusive Major Y'pel. She is a field officer in charge of romulan dirty deeds when it comes to federation matters. I've had the unfortunate pleasure of doing business with her before."

Roberts thought back to the fact that his ferengi first officer had once been a member of ferengi intelligence, and replied, "Oh? I take it the transaction didn't go well?"

Quarn just chuckled to himself and replied as he still worked the console's controls, "Let's just say, hoo-man, that I would count my latinum before handing over whatever it is she wants."

Roberts raised his brows and commented, "Is that a fact? I will have to keep that in mind. So is the new cloaking device fully operational?"

"It seems to be online now, at least. As far as actually working when we turn it on, you will have to ask your chief engineer about the chances of success for that." Quarn answered.

"I think I will." Roberts said lifting his wrist communicator up to his mouth. "Nancy, where are you?"

Thirty seconds passed before, Roberts looked up at Quarn and asked, "Have you seen Nancy, recently?"

"The last time I talked with that female, she was on her way to engineering. That was about eight hours ago."

The voice of the EMH came over the ship's com, "This is the ship's EMH speaking. The young lady you were trying to communicate with is in sickbay. She acquired injuries in engineering, and required immediate medical treatment."

Captain Roberts stood up. "Medical treatment?" Roberts questioned with a sense of unease in his voice. He began to walk quickly towards the turbolift.

"Yes.", the doctor responded, and continued to explain, "She suffered a laceration to the wrist and tearing of the Radial, Ulnar, and Anterior Interosseous Arteries. I healed the wounds; however, she lost a considerable volume of blood on the way to sickbay. As a result she lost consciousness before treatment could begin. She is now resting comfortably here in sickbay."

Roberts stopped walking just short of the turbolift doors. He was close enough that the turbolift's sensors detected him and opened the doors. Relieved that Nancy was okay, Roberts simply commented, "Oh, I see." He nodded to Quarn, and said, "You have the bridge, Mr. Quarn." He stepped into the turbolift and commanded, "Deck two."

The doors hissed shut, and in the span of a few short seconds they reopened again revealing the main corridor of deck two. The captain quickly paced his way down until he turned and entered into sickbay. When he stepped into the room, he saw Nancy laying seemingly lifeless on one of the two beds in the recovery bay. The doctor was standing over her, waving the probe of a tricorder over her limp body.

"Ah, a concerned captain, I see." The doctor piped up cheerfully. He stepped over to a monitoring terminal on the wall and began to adjust its settings. He smiled and cheerfully continued, "Well you can rest assured captain that she is in the best of care. I wouldn't give her any less than the best medical care. After all, you may be traitors to the federation in league with the romulans, but I am still a doctor, however. I will treat her no different than any other member of the U.S.S. Hydra's crew."

Roberts walked up beside Nancy and took her hand into his. It was warm, and he could feel her strong pulse through her wrist. He laid it back down on the table and replied, "Thank you, doctor." He thought for a second, looked at the doctor, and casually asked, "So how did you find out about the romulans?"

The doctor stopped adjusting the controls, and turned with his back to Roberts. His cheerful smile instantly faded to that of nervous worry. He forced a smile, turned back to Roberts and replied, "One of the romulan technicians that was working on the cloaking device in engineering, stopped by to check on her condition." The doctor walked over to the surgical bed, and picked up a data pad that had been left there. He began to work the data pad as he continued, "Apparently, the young romulan officer was quite smitten with your engineer, and decided to share his love of terran culture with her."

Roberts looked confused, "The romulan did this to her?"

The doctor looked up briefly at Roberts and then continued to work the pad, responding, "In a matter of speaking, yes." The doctor let the pad and his hand drop to his side, walked back over to the wall mounted monitoring terminal above Nancy, and fidgeted with the controls with his one free hand. He continued to explain, "Apparently he brought a rather ill tempered ferret onto the ship with him. The ferret and the young engineer here had a clash of, shall we say, personalities. An altercation occurred, and her injuries were the result."

"A ferret attacked her?" Roberts laughed. He thought back to his first assignment onboard a starship, and remembered how the chief engineer of that ship had as a pet a very tame ferret named Sophie. The engineer had trained Sophie to run ODN cables through the tight confines of beneath the deck plates. It seemed it saved a mountain of time to have the little lanky critter navigate the squeezing maze that exists beneath the deck plates over having to pull all the deck plates up and lay the ODN cable by hand. He remembered the tame little fellow and asked, "Are you sure, doc?"

"I didn't see it happen, if that's what you mean. I am limited to being here in sickbay, my holo-emitters only function in here. So I am forced to believe what the romulan…." The doctor said, something on the monitoring panel having caught his attention and caused him to trail off mid sentence. He rambled to himself, "An elevated level of human chorionic gonadotrophin hormones? How could I have missed that on my initial scan?" The doctor dashed back over to the stand where he set down the medical tricorder, exchanged the pad for the tricorder, and quickly walked back to beside the bed where Nancy lay. He opened the tricorder and pulled out the probe, making a quick scan of her abdomen.

Alarm in his voice, Roberts asked expectantly, "What is it, doctor?"

"Damn!" the doctor exclaimed. He continued to scan as he muttered to himself, "How could I be so stupid!"

Roberts walked around the table, grabbed the doctor by the shoulders, and turned the EMH towards him. He looked the doctor straight in the eyes and asked, "What's the problem, doc?"

The doctor sighed a nervous sigh. He replied, "It would appear that the young engineer here is pregnant."

Roberts released his grip of the doctor's arms and stepped a couple of slow short steps back in shock. With his eyes widening and void of blinking even once, he looked at the doctor, shook his head in disbelief, and asked, "She's what?"

The doctor continued his scan with the tricorder and replied, "She is pregnant. She is with child. She has a bun in the oven. She is going to be receiving a visit from the stork. Her monthly visitor has gone away. In other words, captain, she is one hundred percent assuredly knocked up."

Roberts looked down at Nancy's resting face, and slowly as if guided and pulled by some unseen force his gaze found its way to her stomach. Lifting his now dropped jaw, he managed to pull his gaze away, and focused on the doctor. "How is this possible?"

The doctor paused to look briefly over at Roberts and then focused back on his tricorder resuming his work. He responded, "You mean to tell me that you fancy yourself a captain, and you don't know how this works? Do you require me to explain the mechanics of sexual reproduction?"

Roberts shook his head, and out of disgust and confusion turned a complete circle standing in place. "That's not what I meant, doc. I meant how…or why rather…or what I really mean is who…." Roberts tried to explain, stumbling on his own words. He thought for a second and finished, "I guess it was a rhetorical question. Never mind, doc."

"I see." The doctor replied folding the tricorder back over shut and replacing the probe into its carrier. He walked over to the stand and exchanged the tricorder for a hypospray.

Roberts looked down at Nancy and wondered. He wondered why she would enlist in his crew if she knew she were pregnant. Maybe she didn't know. Yes, that was probably the answer. He wondered if maybe her pregnancy explained her recent increase in sexual drive. He wondered one question most of all. Considering they had never been together, who was the father? He turned his head and watched the doctor come back to the bedside. He asked, "Will she be coming-to soon?"

"Doubtful." The doctor replied. He pushed the hypospray up to her neck and depressed the actuator button. It hissed as it delivered its load into Nancy's bloodstream. As the doctor walked back to the stand to set the hypospray down, he explained, "She suffered a severe trauma with the blood loss. She will require several hours of rest to recuperate."

"I see, well when she comes-to, let her know that I would like to see her in my quarters." Roberts requested.

The doctor picked up the pad that he had set down, and began to resume his work with it. Without glancing up he replied, "I will let the patient know your desires when she regains consciousness In the mean time I will keep you apprised of the situation, captain."

"Thank you, doctor.", Roberts replied, walking to the door. The doors to sickbay hissed open and Roberts turned his head back to the doctor and commented, "You know, doc, you aren't that bad of a guy when you aren't quoting starfleet regulations. I am glad to have you onboard." He smiled at the doctor, turned his head back, and exited the room. The doors slid shut behind him.

The doctor's usually ever-present smile faded. He let the data pad drop to his side again. He spoke out, "Computer open EMH medical log, and confirm starfleet encryption codes for integrity."

The computer chirped and replied, "Encryption codes intact for EMH medical logs. Medical logs open."

The doctor sighed in relief. The EMH program and its medical logs were stored in a separate system from the main computer. The doctor was betting on the fact that the ship's hijackers would not have bothered to change the encryption codes for the EMH subsystem, so he could be relatively safe leaving a log there of his activities without them knowing. He needed to do such, so in case he were deactivated, starfleet would have some record of what had transpired onboard the Hydra once they had retaken it. The doctor began to make his log entry, "It has been four hours since I have sent the warning message to starfleet command. The hijacker who has assumed the role of captain made a visit to check up on his fellow co-conspirator. Before he arrived I had barely enough time to perform a short-term memory erasure on her without being caught in the act. If all goes well, she will not remember anything that transpired in sickbay, and as a result my activities should go undetected. This EMH unit, however, will need to undergo a complete diagnostic and possible overhaul as soon as possible, as a mistake in the initial scan of the female engineer failed to determine that she was pregnant. As a result of this failure the neuro-toxin, Trisenepheline was used to sedate her before she could order the computer to shut the EMH program down. Trisenepheline will undoubtedly cause complications throughout the term of her pregnancy, and will most likely result in the unborn fetus being auto-aborted far to prematurely. Even with frequent medical treatment, the predicted survival rate for the unborn child is less than thirteen percent. It is my recommendation that upon recapture of this vessel that this EMH unit be shut down until the reason for the error can be ascertained."

The doctor walked over to Nancy's resting form and touched her hand for a brief moment. It was almost as if he had the look of remorse in his eyes as he looked at her. He called out, "Computer, end log, and encrypt."

***

The streets of New Sydney were packed with pedestrian traffic. She weaved her way through the crowd and stopped in front of a store window. It was an antique store, and setting in the window was an object that summoned up some old ghosts from their graves in her mind. She stared down at the rocking horse that sat there motionless in the window display. It was quite old, had to have been at least early twentieth century by the look of it. It was made of wood and expertly carved. Its details were vivid, even though the paint was just but mere flecks scattered here and there over its surface. Its bushiness of its hemp string tail had seen better days, and the leather reins were tattered and looking as if they were about to fall off.

On an impulse she couldn't explain she had made up her mind, she was going to buy it. Besides, it would look good in the study of her new apartment. She began to walk to the door of the shop again wondering to herself what had made her decide to but it. It was probably overpriced, as all twentieth century antiques were, and with her recent unemployment, she probably couldn't afford the credits that it would cost. 

Then it hit her.

Kyle had bought one for Nancy when she was little.

She opened the door to the store and was about to walk in when she heard a familiar woman's voice call out from the crowd, "Captain Keating! Captain Keating I have an urgent message for you!"

Keating quickly scanned the crowd and located the source of the outcry. She was simple to spot really, as she was the only bajoran in a starfleet uniform on the street. It was Ensign T'ralla trying to push her way through the crowd and make her way to her.

Keating pretended not to here the young ensign, and walked into the store. She walked up to the shopkeeper who was dusting a display case and asked, "Excuse me, how much is that rocking horse in the window worth?"

The older balding man stop dusting the objects on the shelf, turned to her and said, "Well that would depend really."

When he looked at her, she noticed that he had the dark eyes of a betazoid. "Depend on what?" Keating asked as she watched the man walk over to the window display.

She followed him over to it, watched him pick it up, and listened to him explain, "Well, some folks look at this thing and see a few hundred credits and a prize that they can show off to impress their friends. We get those type of folks all the time."  
"Okay." She commented.

"And others come in look at it and see the pure investment value of it. They would keep it locked away, until they needed to raise some credits, then they would liquidate it to the highest bidder."

"Go on." She said, wondering what the man was getting at.

"Then there is the third type of person." he said walking with it over to the store's counter.

"And what type of person is that, exactly?" she asked, following him over to the counter.

He set the rocking horse down on the counter, looked her in the eyes, and explained, "The third type comes in and sees a lifetime of memories when they look at it."

"Captain Keating!" Ensign T'ralla's voice panted from across the room.

Keating turned and looked to the door of the shop and saw an out of breath ensign stepping into the shop. The ensign tiredly walked over to Keating and snapped to attention. Ensign T'ralla reported, "Captain, I have an urgent communication from starfleet command for you."

Keating shook her head and responded, "First off, I am no longer your Captain. I resigned, so Ms. Keating will do just fine T'ralla. Second off I have resigned from starfleet, so it doesn't matter what they want to say to me, because I am not listening."

Ensign T'ralla looked uncomfortable as she explained, "But I'm under direct orders to find you and deliver the message."

"You're order's be damned! I don't care about starfleet anymore! Let them go off and fight their own damn battles! Let them suffer the consequences of their actions! I am tired of it! So go away!" Keating barked back. She turned to the shopkeeper, and assumed a softer tone, "I am sorry about all of this. I am interested in obtaining this rocking horse, if I could just know its price…"

Ensign T'ralla interjected, "The Hydra survived the attack, sir."

Keating raised her head and turned around to face Ensign T'ralla. She looked at her nervous face and asked, "Come again?"

Ensign T'ralla was nervous that she had disobeyed her captain's direct order not to just go away. She quietly restated, "I said that the Hydra survived the attack, sir."

The look on Keating's face was a serious one, "Don't joke with me, ensign. How do you know this?"

"I would never joke with you, sir. And we know this because the EMH aboard the Hydra sent a coded subspace message to starfleet command from romulan space."

"I see. What about its crew?" she asked a look of relief creeping up on her face.

The ensign smiled and answered, "Your daughter is alive."

Keating's face quickly turned sour, "That's not what I asked!"

Ensign T'ralla's smile dropped away as she answered, "I'm sorry, sir. I just thought that you would be relieved to find out that she was still alive. I mean that is what you were going to leave starfleet for, right?"

Keating angrily replied, "Unless you haven't been paying attention, ensign, I already did leave starfleet!"

Ensign T'ralla answered with unease, "Commander Evans wanted me to let you know that he never sent your resignation into starfleet command. I am sorry, sir, but you are still in command of the Hoyle."

Keating took a minute to think about what the ensign was telling her. She turned back to the shopkeeper and said, "I'm sorry, but it looks like I won't have time to haggle over its price with you today. Duty calls." She turned back to Ensign T'ralla and said, "Well what are you waiting for Ensign T'ralla? We need to get back to the Hoyle. I need to be fully briefed on the situation."

Captain Keating and Ensign T'ralla began to walk towards the door, when the shop keeper spoke up, "Wait a minute, young lady."

The captain turned around to see the shopkeeper walking towards them cradling the rocking horse in his arms. The captain reiterated, "I'm am very sorry, but I simply don't have the time to haggle over its price today."

She began to turn back around again when the shopkeeper responded, "You can have it."

She turned back around again and asked him, "What?"

"You can have it." He said handing it to her.

She took it from him and gave him a look of puzzlement, "I don't understand. I can have it? Just like that?"

"Yes.", he responded with a smile. He continued, "There is one catch, however."

"And that would be?" she asked.

He smiled, put his hand on her shoulder, and explained, "Of the three types of people I told you about, I want you to send me a communication when you find out what type you are."

She looked back at him and gave a slight smile, "Okay, It's a deal."

She thanked him and turned back around. She exited the store and they quickly disappeared into the streets of New Sydney.

Her daughter and her cohorts were alive.

It looked like she would have the opportunity to get even after all.

***

Considering he didn't have any fresh stock of it to boil his own the cup of Darjeeling tea that Captain Roberts was sipping on was quite good. Good as far as replicator tea goes anyway. Roberts was sitting on the lower bunk of the cabin that had been forced to choose as his own. It was standard crew quarters for a defiant class starship: cramped, two bunks, a replicator and a computer terminal. The defiant class wasn't built to shuttle diplomats or to go showboating across the galaxy. It was built for one purpose and one purpose alone. War.

The door to his cabin slid open, and Nancy groggily waddled in. The door shut behind her, she looked at Roberts, and said, "The EMH told me that you wanted to see me. So what is it that you wanted?"

Roberts stood up and set his tea down on a small bedside table that jutted out from the wall. He moved up beside her and said, "Have a seat, Nancy."

"If it will make you feel better, asshole." She somberly said.

Roberts escorted her to the bed and helped her to sit down, which just earned him a look of disgust from Nancy. He picked his tea back up and set down beside Nancy. He took a sip of it and asked, "So how are you feeling?"

"Piss off, and what in the hell are you drinking?" she tiredly retorted.

Roberts looked at her and knew that she wasn't feeling one hundred percent okay. For one thing, even though her usage of colorful metaphors had not diminished, the passion with which she spoke them did. He decided to reply with, "It's Darjeeling tea, its pretty good. Would you like some?"

"Hell no. I would rather have a lager right about now." She said rubbing her neck with her hand.

"Do you think that would be a good idea in your condition?" he took another sip of his tea and asked.

Nancy jumped up off of the bed, and angrily asked, "So exactly how much did that holo-dildo tell you?"

"He was only doing his job, Nancy" Roberts explained looking up at her. He continued, "I am your captain, and I have a right to know about the crew's medical condition. Especially when it might effect their job performance."

Nancy pointed to her stomach and responded, "You think that this is gonna affect my job performance?"

"Well somehow I think that it already has." Roberts replied standing up in front of her. "I mean you haven't been acting the same for the past few weeks. I mean when were you planning on telling me about this?"

"First off I don't think that I have to tell you shit, dickweed. And second of all, I don't think that how I've been acting is why you are so concerned about it. Admit it, Roberts, you are jealous. You want to know who the father is. Or more appropriately, who has been screwing my brains out!" She said, her nostrils flaring.

"No I don't. I don't care what you've been doing and with who. All I care about is this ship! And I am beginning to think that I will need to get a replacement for you until you little condition is over with in several months!" Roberts said beginning to lose his temper.

Nancy was pissed. "All you care about is this ship?" she asked.

"Yes!" he responded getting up in her face.

That is when Roberts found out he had given the wrong answer. She deftly and with force brought her knee up into his crotch, causing him to fall to his knees writhing in pain on the deck of the cabin. His teacup was just jagged shards on the floor before him. "Fine, to hell with you and your ship!" She said. She turned around and stomped out of the cabin.

Roberts rolled over onto his back, he was in unbearable agony, and he didn't want to go to sick bay to have the doctor look at his injury. He would be far too embarrassed. 

The ship's com came to life and Quarn spoke up, "Well I've got good news, and I've got bad news, hoo-man."

"What's that, Quarn?" Roberts strained to ask as he pulled himself back up onto his knees.

"Well the good news is that the cloak appears to be working. We have passed out of romulan space and we haven't been detected yet." Quarn explained.

Roberts managed to get to his feet and ask, "So what's the bad news?"

There was a moment of silence before Quarn replied, "Someone on board sent a coded subspace message to starfleet."

* End Chapter Six * 

Will the crew figure out who sent the message? Will Nancy reveal who the father of her child is? Will Captain Keating get her revenge? To get the answers to these questions you will have to tune in for the next installment because this story is…

To be continued…

P.S.—the I would love any questions or comments that you all have for me you can either post them on the review page or email them to me at: mojo@iowatelecom.net

  



	7. Chapter Seven

DISCLAIMER:  
  
"Star Trek" and all associated names and characters, with the exceptions of the ones created by myself for this story, are © Paramount. I am a fan of Gene Roddenberry's dream and just wish to keep it alive so that tomorrow's youth may gain by it as I have. This is fan fiction; there is no infringement of copyright intended with this story, nor have I written it for personal financial gain. So relax, engage at full warp and enjoy!

Chapter Seven

The portable regeneration alcove always left her a little tired. It was supposed to rejuvenate her bio-systems and borg implants for another day's work, but instead it she always seemed a little bit groggy after having used it. The fixed regeneration alcove units like the one she had waiting for her on vulcan were much more efficient and didn't leave her feeling this way. However, the U.S.S. Henderson was still two days out of Vulcan and for the time being she would just have to make due with the portable unit.

Her cortical node disengaged as she step down from the regeneration alcove. The alcove powered down. She stretched her arms above her head and yawned. Still feeling tired she walked over to the replicator that was in her quarters and began to tap in her request for breakfast.

The computer buzzed a negative tone and responded, "Unable to comply with request. Specified item is not listed in ship's database."

"It's a sausage, egg, and cheese sandwich." She groaned, asking, "You are telling me that you have passengers from earth all the time and you don't know how to make one?"

"Unable to comply. Please enter parameters." The computer droned out.

Kim took a breath and explained, "First you take a croissant and slice it along its longitudinal axis into two halves. Next you will want to place in between those two slices a patty of ground pork eight centimeters in diameter and one centimeter in thickness whose internal temperature has reached a minimum of seventy-seven degrees Celsius. Next place above that patty, but beneath the bun a seven-centimeter square by three millimeter thick slice of American cheese. Can you do that?"

The computer chirped in compliance and soon materialized her breakfast on a small glass plate. She retrieved the plate from the replicator and walked over to the couch that was in her quarters. She sat down, set the plate in her lap, and reached forward to turn a computer terminal on the table in front of her towards her. As she took a bite of her hot sandwich, she tapped on the controls of the computer bringing up the Henderson's LCARS startup menu. With her mouth still full she prompted, "Computer recognize user Doctor Kimberly Tzu."

The computer gave off its compliance tones before responding, "Identity confirmed. Awaiting instructions."

Kim swallowed, and hungrily took another bite. Even though she really didn't need to eat all that much as her borg nannies produced just about everything her body needed to function during her regeneration cycle, she still enjoyed indulging her palate in that ritual known as breakfast. Still chewing she said, "Show me all unread messages."

The computer flashed to a listing of messages. She quickly scanned through the list until she focused on one of the messages. She ordered the computer, "Computer, play message from Lotok."

She took another bite of her sandwich as an image of a vulcan male came up on the screen. The vulcan began, "Greetings Doctor Tzu, I am looking forward to your arrival. We are ready to begin work on the satori eight prototype as soon as you arrive with it. I have taken the liberty of speaking with the transport ship's captain, and he assures me that you will be arriving on time. This is fortunate. We need to begin tests on the prototype positronic matrix as soon as possible. If your assertions prove to be correct, then starfleet will undoubtedly want to fund its production. We await your arrival. May your journey be safe and uneventful. Live long and prosper. Lotok, out."

The display reverted to the listing of messages. Kim took another bite of her sandwich and thought about what her vulcan colleague had said. She looked over to the bed that was useless to her and at the case that lay upon it. Protected within its confines was the satori eight prototype. It was a positronic soong type cybernetic brain that had been modified integrating borg technology, and this one was different than all of its predecessors. This one was completely stable. It represented over ten years of her life.

She looked back at the screen and took another bite of her sandwich, allowing its rich flavors linger in her mouth. She almost gagged on the bite she took when she felt the bulkheads shudder. The klaxon of a red alert wailed out. She quickly swallowed the bite she had took and looked out the viewport. 

The stars stopped moving. 

They were dropping out of warp. 

She was on her feet and heading for the case on the bed when the next jolt nearly shook her off of her feet. The ship was definitely under attack and she knew that this far into federation space it could only mean one thing. She grabbed the case off of the bed and began to head for the door saying, "Raiders!"

***

"Did we get their shields with that round of fire, Quarn?" Roberts asked as he leaned forward in his captain's chair.

Sitting at the tactical station and intently working the controls, Quarn answered, "Affirmative, hoo-man. Their shields are down, and their engines are disabled. So far it looks like our hand has not been tipped. No signs of intercepting starships."

"Well thank God for small favors." Captain Roberts commented. He stood up from his captain's chair and ordered, "Okay Quarn, do your magic. Scan the Henderson for borg signatures, and beam any targets you find back to the detention cell."

Roberts looked to the young human male sitting at the conn and said, "Mr. Williams, as soon as Quarn gives the okay I want you to plot us a course out of here and to the rendezvous point with the romulans." They had met up with the romulan warbird, the V'rok, and had picked up the members of his crew that were being relayed on it. It was nice to have at least a partial crew onboard. A partial crew is better than no crew at all in a firefight.

The young man replied, "Aye, sir. Course already laid in."

"Good." Roberts replied. He turned, walked towards the turbolift, and added, "Be sure to get us cloaked again as soon as we are underway, Quarn. I'll be on my way down to the detention cell on deck two."

The doors to the turbolift slid open and the captain walked in. He turned around, and as the doors closed he smiled and said, "Deck two. It's time to meet our abductee."

***

The doctor was sitting in the office of sickbay. He was staring at the computer terminal and nervously tapping his way through the LCARS system. He mumbled, "There has got to be a way." They must have detected that a message had been covertly sent. However, they must not have been able to detect that he had sent it, for they had not yet deactivated his program. They did, however, disable the way that he had used to send the message the last time. He needed to find a way to get a message off of the ship and back to starfleet command. He thought to himself for a minute trying to decipher the complexities of the ship's communication subsystem.

Then the idea flashed through his mind. He spoke out, "Computer, synchronize the ship's medical database with that of the nearest starfleet medical database."

He nervously waited in anticipation for a moment until the computer responded, "Connection with starfleet command established. Synchronizing database now."

The doctor smiled and ordered, "Maintain connection with starfleet command but cancel synchronization of database."

The computer chirped back and obediently responded, "Connection maintained."

The doctor thought to himself that once again his captors had overlooked and underestimated the medical subsystems. He now had a way to get a message off of the Hydra. "Good, now, open a person to person video conference with the head of starfleet medical."

The screen cut to a blue background with the starfleet logo in the center. The doctor waited impatiently for the conference to come through. About thirty seconds later an older human female with gray hair came onto the screen. "This had better be good, I am a busy woman." The woman complained. When she looked up at the screen and saw who she was talking to she asked, "You are a series AK-one EMH…I haven't seen that outdated of a program in at least ten years! What ship are you on?"

"I am onboard the U.S.S. Hydra, and I don't have a lot of time to explain." The doctor hurriedly answered.

"The Hydra should have been outfitted with an AX-three, as is used in all current federation starships." She said looking puzzled.

The doctor explained, "This is the U.S.S. Hydra, registry N.C.C. eight four two oh one B. Apparently this ship has been mothballed for quite sometime."

"I see, well, that explains a bit. The Hydra was up to the D variant last time I checked. So the Hydra B has been called back into active duty?" she asked.

"Not precisely." The doctor replied, adding the explanation, "This ship has been reactivated, just not by starfleet orders. The crew who is manning her is…shall we say…less than honest in their intentions of what to do with it. Suffice it to say, I need to get a message to starfleet command, and this is the only method I could come up with."

The elderly woman had a look of concern on her face as she responded, "I see. Well you had better just cut to the chase then, doctor."

"Thank you and I will. I don't know how much time I have but I need the following message to be gotten through to Admiral Quro' Nu without haste." The doctor explained.

"As soon as this conversation is finished I will forward it to him immediately, doctor. By the way, I don't suppose since you are a AK-one series that anyone ever bothered to give you a name?"

The doctor nervously snapped back, "No they haven't, and this isn't the time to discuss my christening." He calmed down and explained, "I have discovered through the crew that after they are done with their first mission for the romulans they are intending to return to the federation starbase Bajorana in order to fully complement their crew. I overheard one of the crew who was here in sickbay comment that it would only be a few days until they would be there. If the Admiral wanted to set a trap that would be the ideal place to spring it."

"Right. I will let the admiral know immediately." The woman began to move to tap on the controls of her terminal to end the transmission.

"No, wait!" the doctor interjected. "There is more."

"I'm listening go ahead." The woman replied easing back off of the controls.

The doctor stared intently into the screen and said, "I have also learned that the privateers that have commandeered this vessel are planning to meet with their romulan conspirators and deliver their stolen cargo before setting course for the Bajorana. I haven't been able to ascertain what their cargo is, however, I am sure that the federation would not be served by its release to the romulans."

The woman smiled, "You wouldn't have happened to have 'overheard' the coordinates for that little tea party would you?"

"Unfortunately not. However, I think that the following info will be of assistance. I have learned from one of their engineers who is in here daily for medical assistance, that the cloaking device is not working at one hundred percent efficiency. Apparently there is an EM feedback that is emitting a subspace signal that they cannot isolate and correct. They are waiting until they can meet up with their romulan cohorts in order to correct it. If the admiral were to have a starship follow that signal it may be possible to…" the doctor was cut short when the doors of sickbay opened. He looked down at the woman on the screen with eyes of concern, and tapped the controls to cut the conversation short. The screen quickly reverted to that of the LCARS startup menu. He picked up a data pad off of the desk. He stood up, and placed a worry free smile on his face as he walked out of the office and into the medical bay.

It was Nancy whom had entered. He walked over to meet her, pretending to work on information on his data pad. He looked up at her and jovially asked, "Good afternoon, Ms. Griffith, how are your symptoms today?"

She strolled over to the surgical table, wearily sat down upon it, and gave the doctor a scowl. She replied, "I'm freakin pregnant, how do you think my damn symptoms are?"

The doctor walked over to his stand, and exchanged the data pad for his medical tricorder. He walked over to Nancy and began to scan her with it, replying, "Well your cheerful disposition and colorful usage of metaphors seems to be intact. By this stage in pregnancy, most human females report a reduction in the symptoms of discomfort and nausea. In fact they report a certain feeling of elation and vigor. Are you displaying any unusual symptoms?"

Nancy snarled back, "Bend over and I will use that damn tricorder to show you elation and vigor, baldie."

The doctor looked up at her briefly and raised an eyebrow. He looked back down to his tricorder and continued his scan, asking, "So I take it the abdominal cramping that you have been complaining about hasn't subsided?"

"It looks like your little know it all miracle shots aren't helping, doc." Nancy replied.

The doctor confirmed her observation by completing his scan. He closed the tricorder, and walked back to his stand and set it down. He picked up the data pad and began to type his notes into it. With his back to Nancy he said, "I will have to let you know that this is not a good sign, and that I feel that you should let the father of the child know about the situation. Just incase your condition deteriorates any further. I'm sure he would like to be kept informed."

Nancy laughed, "Well that would be a little bit impossible!"

The doctor looked up from his data pad, turned to Nancy and asked, "Oh how is that?"

Nancy shook her head as she jumped down from the table. She thought about it for a moment and replied, "The sperm donor of a so called man can't be reached yet."

The doctor looked at her in surprise and confusion as he thought about the DNA scans he had earlier preformed on her unborn child. "I am beginning to think that you don't realize who your child's father is, Ms. Griffith."

Nancy walked over to the doctor and answered, "Let's get one thing straight you arrogant photonic penis. I know whom I have slept with recently and I know who the father of this child is. When I say he can't be reached yet that is exactly what I mean."

"At the risk of having you deactivate or do horrible things to my program, I think you are mistaken, Ms. Griffith. My scans clearly show that the father of your child is…" the doctor began to explain.

"Are you deaf, moron? I already told your pathetic ass that I know who my baby's father is." She said feeling a sharp pain shoot through her stomach.

"I don't understand." The doctor replied in confusion. "Why wouldn't you want Mr. Roberts to know?"

She wrapped her arms around her stomach as a cramp nearly sent her to the floor. She gasped for breath in pain as she replied, "Like I told you…its impossible…"

The doctor quickly set the data pad down, and helped to steady her so she wouldn't fall. He helped her back over to the examination table and lifted her up onto it. She lay down clutching her stomach and clenching her eyes and teeth in pain. The doctor quickly grabbed his tricorder off of the stand and began to examine her. "I don't understand, is it that you don't want him to know?"

In her writhing pain she managed to huff out, "No, he will know. I mean he was there and he put what he knew together with what he did. So he already knew. It's just he doesn't know yet, and he can't be told."

The doctor quickly exchanged the tricorder for a hypospray. He held it to her neck and injected her with a stronger dosage of the antitoxin that he had been treating her with. He replied, "I think that the pain is getting to you. You aren't making any sense." He tapped on his com badge and said, "Captain Roberts, this is the ship's EMH, I think that there is something that you need to know."

Nancy looked up at him with fiery eyes and growled through her clenched teeth, "Tell him about it, and I will tell him about how it's been you that has been sending the messages to starfleet command, ratting us out!"

He looked down at her pain filled enraged face in shock. She knew. Why hadn't she said anything to Roberts about it?

Robert's voice came in over the com, "This is Roberts what is it, doc? I am a little bit busy right now."

Still looking down at her, he pondered his situation.

"Doc? Is everything okay down there?" Roberts asked.

Trying to sound convincing he answered, "Yes everything is fine."

"So what is it that was so important?" Roberts asked.

The doctor quickly came up with a convincing lie, "I, I just wanted to report that there are no cases of Thelusian flu onboard."

Roberts paused for a few seconds before asking, "Was that it?" 

The doctor tried to force a smile, hoping that it would carry over the com in his voice, "Yes, I just thought you should know."

"Oh well thank you. And keep up the good work, doctor." Roberts commented closing the com line.

The doctor looked down at Nancy. Her pain was obviously subsiding, but the severity of the cramps would only get worse. They would only increase until she eventually aborted the fetus. It was his fault, and his behavioral subroutines didn't know how to deal with it. He wiped the sweat from her forehead and asked, "So if you knew about my transmissions, why didn't you inform Mr. Roberts?"

She scowled back at him and forced his hand away. She replied, "Because, dickweed, just like the informing the father of my child of his role in becoming a parent, your transmissions are fucking impossible as well."

***

The borg scientist had her arms crossed as she stood behind the confines of the force field of the detention cell. Roberts turned back to her, smiled and said, "I am sorry for that interruption, Dr. Tzu. Our EMH is a little bit flaky."

She rolled her eyes and replied, "Well the AK-one series EMH always did have some idiosyncrasies that the programmers could never iron out."

He walked over to the replicator in the room and began to tap at the controls of it. Two cups of tea materialized shortly afterwards in its receptacle. Captain Roberts grabbed the saucers that the cups were on and brought them over to in front of the holding cell. He motioned with one of the cups to Dr. Tzu, "Tea?"

She smiled, tapped on the force field with one finger, causing it to flash, and answered, "Sure, just lower this force field and I'd be delighted to share a cup with you." 

"No thanks, I've seen what borg nanoprobes can do to a man. I think we will leave it up. However…" Roberts replied, trailing off. He turned to the control station of the holding cells and set one of the cups down onto it. He pulled up his wrist communicator and asked, "Mr. Quarn are we safely underway?"

Quarn's voice returned back a few seconds later, "We are rigged for silent running and are en-route at warp eight for the rendezvous point."

"Good." Roberts replied, adding, "I need you to do a site to site transport of something for me. There is a cup of tea setting on the control station of the holding cells that I need to have transported into the holding cell for our guest."

Within a few seconds the cup of tea on the control panel shimmered and dematerialized, reappearing forthwith onto the floor of the holding cell's interior. Kim picked it up and replied with an obviously faked courteous smile, "Thank you." She sat down onto the primitive bunk that was connected to the wall of the room and began to sip on her tea. It was a white tea, but she couldn't quite make out which variety. She relaxed and asked, "So I wouldn't have thought a rough pirate to be into refined things such as tea. I thought Klingon bloodwine and cursing out dirty limericks was more your kind's style."

Roberts took a sip of his tea, chuckled, and replied, "You haven't seen my chief engineer on shore leave yet." He adopted a more serious tone, and continued, "But seriously to answer your question, I didn't start out my career with the intent of becoming a privateer on my mind. It seems like only yesterday that I was in starfleet, looking at the future with bright eyes."

She took another sip of the hot tea and asked, "Is that where your love affair with the Camellia saneness of the family Theaceae?"

"Not quite." Roberts explained setting his steamy cup back onto the saucer he held in his hand. He continued, "That's where I met my first love who introduced me to the addiction."

Kim took the cup into both her hands leaned forward on the bunk and took a sip. She smiled and commented, "Romance…this is getting better."

"She was an idealistic cadet by the name of Johanna Sivin. She had a thing for tea and would drag me out at all hours of the night to sample them at coffeehouses in the bay area. I would miss morning classes more than once because of her keeping me out so late indulging in caffeinated gluttony. But just like my academy days all good things had to come to an end."

Kim took another sip and asked, "So that's why you turned against the federation. Because you lost the love of a woman?"

Roberts laughed and then sighed. He replied, "No, I didn't leave starfleet because of a woman. No woman would be worth me trading my future of being in command over. I don't care how pretty her eyes are." Roberts walked to the other side of the room, and took another sip of his tea. He continued, "No I am afraid that Cadet Johanna Sivin became Ensign Sivin before I even graduated. She shipped out and became a Starfleet historian specializing in the histories of space stations and star bases."

"I see, so tell me, why did you turn your back on starfleet?" she asked. She tipped her cup to her lips and let the last of the white tea flow into her mouth. She still couldn't identify the specific variety it was.

"That's a very complicated question to answer. Suffice it to say, I was on my way up in the ranks when found myself with the opportunity to settle a matter of family honor. An admiral was almost killed as a result of my actions, and my entire future of being in command of my own starship in starfleet ended with the blow of a gavel and the harsh reinforcements of a federation penal colony." Roberts said walking back over to the replicator. He placed his cup back into the receptacle and tapped on the keypad to make the unit recycle the now empty cup. He turned back towards Dr. Tzu and asked, "So, let me ask you a question. In the dossier I received on you it mentioned that you had been assimilated into the borg collective five years ago. The picture that was included with the dossier, however, didn't show the ocular implants that you have on your face. In fact, if I hadn't read the report, I wouldn't have known you were borg at all. Why is that?"

"Well let's just say that I have gotten good at hiding myself from the public eye since my little lab accident." She replied briefly stroking the remnants of her ocular implant with the fingertips of one of her hands.

"Lab accident?" Roberts asked.

She set the empty cup and saucer down on the bunk next to her, and stood up. The exposed wrists and fingertips that poked out of her outfit were clad with borg exoplating. With the exception of that and the remains of the ocular implant you couldn't tell she was borg at all. Her long straight jet-black oriental hair covered most all of the scarring that had occurred to her cranium when she was assimilated. She walked up to the force field and replied, "Yes, my lab accident. That is how I became borg. I was working on the satori seven project when I accidentally became exposed to the modified borg nanoprobes that I was working with. The probes quickly assimilated my body. It took the best doctors at starfleet medical over ten weeks of surgery and treatment to get me back to being as far human as I am today."

Roberts walked up to the force field in front of her and asked, "So you think you look ugly with the implants that is why you avoid the public and having your picture taken?"

"No I avoid the public and having my picture taken, because I don't need the publicity. I mean, I don't know if you watch the telecasts or not, but borg sentiment is not at an all time high. I mean about the only two races that the public seems to like less than the borg are the changeling founders and their lap dogs the Jem`Hadar. Life is hard for any post-collective drone. People don't want to run up and shake your hand. I guess they are too afraid of our injection tubules. Peace may be the rule of the federation, but bigotry seems to be the reality."

"I see, I had no idea it was that hard for you. You should be glad that the romulans have taken an interest in you. Maybe with them you will find public acceptance." Roberts commented.

Kim's face enveloped with the look of horrified anger, as she exclaimed, "The who?"

"The romulans. They are the ones who are paying me for acquiring you for them." Roberts nervously answered.

Kim beat at the force field with both of her fists in sheer infuriated desperation. She turned around paced two steps back in the cell, spun around and growled, "You have no idea, do you? I mean you have no idea why they want my services."

Roberts took a couple of steps back from the force field. He had heard that in extreme cases that borg injection tubules could penetrate force fields even, and he didn't want to be close enough to find out. He looked at her and replied, "In my line of work, you don't get paid to ask a whole lot of questions. You just deliver the goods, and cut your patron government in on a cut of the bounty. That's how you keep your letter of marque."

She angrily explained, "With the realized second dominion invasion and the ever increasing threat that the alliance is going to fall apart, you have to ask yourself, 'what would the romulan star empire want with the federation's leading cyberneticist?'" 

Roberts shook his head, "I already told you, lady, that I don't care what they want with you. All I know is that if I deliver you, they are happy, and I get to have a safe harbor to make repairs to my vessel in."

"You really don't care do you?" she asked.

Roberts walked to the door of the brig and replied, "No, I guess I don't." The doors slid open and he walked out into the corridor. The doors slid shut behind him.

Kim hastily sat back down on the bunk in the cell, and thought to herself for a moment. At first she thought that her kidnappers might have just been looking for a ransom from the federation. Now she knew that there was something much more insidious afoot. She could not allow herself to be captured by the romulans. The entire future of the alpha quadrant could depend upon it.

The first thing she would need to do would be to get out of the detention cell. She quickly scanned the cell there were no terminals she could access from inside the cell. There were no panels to pull open. She wasn't surprised. It was a detention cell after all. That's what it was designed to do, keep people in.

She looked out to the guard's area of the brig. Setting next to the vacant control console was the case that she was carrying when she was involuntarily beamed aboard this ship. Inside it was the satori eight prototype. It might just be close enough to the terminal she thought.

She activated her neruo-transceiver and quickly linked up with the satori eight prototype. "Time to wake up, Athena." She softly spoke, focusing intently upon the case. In a split second two injection tubules broke through the housing of the case, and easily punctured the base of the control console. Within the span of a few short seconds the force field that was keeping her in the detention cell flickered off. She stepped out of the cell and walked over to the case that was lying on the ground. The injection tubules withdrew back into it as she picked it up by the handle. She looked to the door of the room, and she thought to herself that if she were going to have any chance of getting off of this ship and away from her captors, she would have to find the computer core quickly and undetected.

***

Captain Keating walked out of her ready room and barked, "Report."

Her executive officer stood up from the captain's chair and reported, "We have managed to lock onto the source of the EM feedback via subspace sensors. We have a course laid in and, we are ready to energize at maximum warp. It looks like the admiral had some good intel on this one."

"You can thank a no-name starfleet EMH program for that, Mr. Evans." She replied. She smiled, as she strolled over to her chair and sunk down into it. She crossed her legs and rhetorically stated, "Last time you got the best of me, Mr. Roberts. This time you won't be so lucky." She looked down to the young bajoran ensign at the conn and ordered, "Energize, maximum warp, Ensign T'ralla."

"Aye, sir." T'ralla complied, engaging the warp engines.

"ETA until we overtake them?" Keating asked.

"At current velocity we will over take them in…" T'ralla started, proceeding to make a calculation at her station. She quickly continued, "Ten hours fourteen minutes."

"Good. And Mr. Evans?"

"Yes captain?" her exec answered.

"I want this ship ready for battle in eight hours. They aren't going to slip away from us this time." She ordered.

"Aye sir." He replied with a smile.

This time she wasn't going to back down from one of Roberts's bluffs. She would see him and his entire crew locked up in her brig, including Nancy. She in fact had a special cell lined up for her.

* End Chapter Seven * 

Is Roberts really the father of Nancy's child? Will Roberts really turn the good Doctor Tzu over to the romulans? What do the romulans want with Dr. Tzu? Does anyone really care about where Captain Roberts gained his love of tea from? Will the duckie pajamas ever make a return? For these answers and more, tune in next time because this story is…

To be continued…

P.S.—the I would love any questions or comments that you all have for me you can either post them on the review page or email them to me at: mojo@iowatelecom.net

  



	8. Chapter Eight

DISCLAIMER:  
  
"Star Trek" and all associated names and characters, with the exceptions of the ones created by myself for this story, are © Paramount. I am a fan of Gene Roddenberry's dream and just wish to keep it alive so that tomorrow's youth may gain by it as I have. This is fan fiction; there is no infringement of copyright intended with this story, nor have I written it for personal financial gain. So relax, engage at full warp and enjoy!

(Note—I am very sorry all, I have had one heck of a bad week and haven't had much time to write…but now that I know where my future is headed I have been able to find the time to finish this very long and complicated update. I hope you all enjoy the plot twists…and BTW—is anyone else pissed off about fanfiction changing the default rating browse from show all to pg-13…email me with your comments about that.)

Chapter Eight

The cunning Borg scientist had just escaped from the confines of the brig and was stealthily darting about the corridors of the Hydra when she found her lucky break. It was a service hatch that led into a jefferies tube. She crossed the hall being careful to note that no one would see her, and came to the control panel for the hatch. She tapped the inspection key on the terminal and the hatch unbattened and slid open. She set the case that carried the experimental Borg enhanced positronic brain into the jefferies tube and gave it a good shove in. She quickly climbed into the jefferies tube and turned around, quickly locating the interior control panel for the hatch, and tapped the inspection cancel button. The door slid shut and locked down securely. She reactivated her neuro-transceiver and made a subspace link with the prototype in the case.

'_Athena, wake up. I need to know if you were able to ascertain what ship we are being held on when you linked up to the control panel in the detention area.'_ She inquired non-vocally to the prototype positronic brain via the implant she had just activated.

_'You mean to tell me that you actually require my assistance again? The total ship's complement excluding you is only thirty-eight. A talented and intelligent woman like yourself augmented with borg technology should be easily able to defeat them without my intervention.'_ The unit answered back.

Kim inched her way forward in the cramped jefferies tube pushing the case in front of her as she progressed deeper along its path. Annoyed by the artificial's response to her she explained, _'Athena, if we don't get control of all this ship's functions and force the crew into submission before they meet up with the romulans we will be in big trouble with a capital T. So just be a good sport and tell me what I need to know.'_

'We are onboard the ex-federation defiant class vessel U.S.S. Hydra, ship's registry number 84201B. It was decommissioned six years ago, as a part of a treaty with the romulan star empire. Apparently, a little over a week ago, this ship was returned to duty, albeit not by, with, or for the federation and starfleet. I have ran the records of the current crew manifest against the starfleet personnel files that were stored in the ship's computer and over half of the crew, including the captain, is ex-starfleet. Of that slight majority, most have served sentences on federation penal colonies.'

Kim came to a junction in the jefferies tube and looked both ways trying to divine a bearing on which direction the ship's computer core was. She asked, _'You had time to search the ship's database to find out all that background info, Athena?'_

Athena commented, _'Would you care to know that the starfleet transcript for the captain, or should I say Ex-commander Roberts stated that he was a bed wetter as a child?' _

Looking at the three directions the jefferies tubes before her forked off into she replied, _'No that's fine. I'm sure the detailed biography you have compiled for me about him can wait until we have successfully taken total control of this ship. What I would like to know, is which direction is the central computer core from our current location?'_

'It's located on deck two. As far as where that is in relation to our current location, I wouldn't know. I have no body, and therefore no practical way to ascertain where here is, remember.' Athena explained.

Kim sarcastically spoke aloud, "I'd almost loan you mine if I thought it would help." That's when the idea hit upon her. She signaled, _'Athena, be prepared to receive a visual record of the jefferies tube we are in, and scan it against what you know about the deck layout of this ship to determine which direction we should take to arrive at the computer core undetected.'_ With that Kim used her artificial eye to scan the layout of the junction and then transmitted the visual record to Athena.

Athena was quick with the results, _'Take the tube to your right, and then proceed past the next two intersections the hatch at the end will lead directly into the computer core.'_

Upon receiving the directions, Kim pushed the case into the tube off to her right and proceeded to slowly inch her way on her hands and knees forward into it. It took nearly five minutes of work for her to push her way past the next two junctions and arrive at the hatch at the terminus of the tube. She tapped the inspect button on the hatch's control panel and it unlocked and slid open. She pushed the case out before her and set it upon the floor of the computer core. She crawled out and hit the inspection cancel button for the hatch. She kneeled down before the case and opened it up. Inside was the familiar sphere shaped prototype that she had labored so long on and had come to know as Athena. She quickly lifted it from its protective padding and stood up. She quickly cased the room with her eyes and forthwith located the main computer access terminal. She walked over and set the prototype down onto the computer terminal. She sent the message, _'Okay Athena, time to go to work. I need you to link up with the computer core and assimilate it. We need to have absolute control of this ship by the time they figure out what is going on.'_

Athena extended Borg injection tubules from the hybrid positronic brain that housed her and interfaced with the computer terminal. She was quick to explain, _'According to the ship's schematics that won't be so easy. You see the defiant class was built as a ship of war to fight the Borg. How ironic can this be? I mean you and I are of Borg, and here we are planning to hijack a vessel that was designed to defeat the Borg. Don't you find that amusing, Dr. Tzu?'_

Impatient, nervous and, aggravated Kim asked, _'We'll save the debate on how ironic this is for another time, Athena. Right now I just want to know one thing. Why won't it be so easy?'_

Athena replied, _'Oh right, sorry. I forget that I have a tendency to get side tracked and babble. Like I was explaining, the defiant class was built as a ship of war. As a result it was designed and built with a network of 48 quadritronic optical subprocessors, which are distributed throughout the volume of the vehicle spaceframe. The main bridge alone has a total of 18 dedicated and shared subprocessors, which permit operations even in the event of main computer core failure or in this case the event that someone is trying to take over the ship by gaining control of the main computer core.'_

'So how do we take control of them all at the same time without getting caught first?' Kim asked.

Athena answered, _'You will have to go down to main engineering and inject a large dosage of nanoprobes into the ship's EPS root hub. The nanoprobes will travel along the EPS conduits and to all of the ship's subproccessors, whereupon they will assimilate them and allow control to revert to the main computer core and subsequently me. We will then have total control of the Hydra.'_

Kim didn't like the idea of having to go to main engineering. She had gambled her success of gaining control of the ship based upon not getting into a confrontation with the crew. She would have to travel now into the belly of the beast and confront many people, because she highly doubted engineering would be totally void of crew. _'I'll need to know the way there.'_ she requested as she walked towards the door that led into the corridor. The doors slid open and she peered out both ways. It was clear.

_'I've gained access to ship's sensors and will be able to monitor your whereabouts onboard the ship at any given time. As such I will guide you down to main engineering.'_ Athena answered.

Kim cautiously stepped out into the corridor and thought to herself, 'and I thought this was going to be a nice quiet trip to Vulcan.'

***

Captain Roberts's voice boomed over the com of the crew quarters, "Mr. Williams, I need you on the bridge right away. We are less than an hour away from our rendezvous with the romulans and I need to have you at your station now."

Todd Williams rolled over still half-asleep in his new bunk onboard the Hydra and replied groggily, "Aye, Aye captain. I'm on my way." He rolled out of his bunk and pulled his pants onto him. He knew enough that if the captain made a request, that it was best just to follow orders as quickly as you could. As a result he quickly scanned the floor and located his socks. He had served with the captain back when the captain was just a commander and the first officer of the U.S.S. Aldridge. The captain was the only one onboard the Aldridge that believed in him. He respected the captain and didn't believe that the captain received fair treatment at his court martial. He pulled up his socks and grabbed his shoes that sat on the floor nearby.

It simply wasn't the captain's fault. Not really, anyway. The captain had rigged the holodeck to override the safety protocols, but the Admiral that he had sabotaged it to gain revenge on found out about the tampering before he started the program. The admiral pompously chose to disregard the warnings of the computer, and go on with the Klingon Bat'leth combat program that he routinely did. So it was the admiral's own fault really. The captain didn't deserve a dishonorable discharge and time in a federation penal colony for it. The captain was almost a hero figure to Todd, so he had no hesitations at all about leaving starfleet and joining up with Roberts when he offered the chance.

He pulled his shoes on and stood up. He began to walk towards the doors of the quarters when they slid open, and there stood his bunkmate, Tabok. Tabok was one of the crew that Captain Roberts had enlisted that didn't come from starfleet. He was a six and a half foot tall Vulcan with jet-black hair and pale white skin.

Tabok greeted him in his usual stoic manner, "Greetings, Mr. Williams, I assume your rest period was uneventful?"

Todd smiled back at the Vulcan and replied, "I had nice dreams if that's what you mean, Tabok. However, right now I need to run." He ducked to the side of the Vulcan standing in the door way and yelled as he run down the corridor, "The captain needs me, and oh yeah, have a nice day!"

Tabok raised an eyebrow and in a calm conversational voice replied, "Indeed? And may you have a pleasant day as well, Mr. Williams."

Tabok walked into the crew quarters he had been assigned and made his way in the cramped room to his personal storage locker. He punched in the unlock code on its control pad, and pulled the door open. As he reached inside he ordered, "Computer, lock door."

The computer chirped in compliance.

He retrieved from the locker a medium sized equipment case and walked over to his bunk with it. He set the case down on the bunk, and opened it up. He pulled from the case a non-federation portable vid com transmitter and set it on the desk next to the viewport. He turned back to the open case and pulled out the unit's flat palm sized subspace antenna. He stepped over to the viewport and attached it to the transparent aluminum portal. Methodically he attached the cable dangleing from the antenna to the back of the vid com unit, and then proceeded to fold open the vid com's screen to its upright and viewable position. He tapped at the control panel of the unit, bringing it to life, and then proceeded to open an encoded subspace video communication. He sat down at the desk, as the other side of the communication came to life on the screen.

"Greetings Commander Teral." Tabok addressed the romulan commander.

"What is your status? We have you calculated rendezvous with us in just under an hour? Is the borg scientist safely onboard, and more importantly is the prototype safely in Roberts's custody." Commander Teral asked.

"The prototype was beamed aboard along with Dr. Tzu. A check of the transporter buffer logs confirmed this. Your estimations of our arrival time with your ship is accurate. However, the status of the contingency plan we had discussed is less than to be desired." Tabok answered dispassionately.

"What do you mean, vulcan, 'less than to be desired'? If anything goes wrong with the exchange we will need the Hydra's shields down in order to beam the Dr. Tzu and the prototype over to my ship immediately!" the romulan replied infuriated.

Without expression Tabok explained, "The shield control authorization codes have been encrypted in such a fashion that not even I can penetrate those systems. However, I shall endeavor to find a solution to the problem before our scheduled rendezvous."

Commander Teral massaged his nose near his eyes in a pinching fashion, calmed down, and replied, "You have served the romulan empire well, Tabok, I know that you will find a way to do this for the good of our two peoples. You know how far the gaining of this technology will go towards our shared goal of reunification."

"I do indeed, Commander Teral, Tabok out." He said, cutting the communication. He quickly folded the screen back down, detached the antenna from the unit, and began to stow the equipment back into its case. Within a matter of a minute he had the case back into the storage locker and had the unit locked back up. He walked back over to the desk and sat down again. He clasped his hands together, raised his joined index fingers upwards and then breathed in slowly to meditate for a second and center himself. He finished with his meditation and turned the computer console that set on the top of the desk towards him.

"Computer access ship's medical database system." Tabok requested. Within a split second the LCARS system had accessed the medical database. He continued, "Synchronize the ship's medical database with that of the starfleet medical database located onboard the U.S.S. Hoyle."

The computer chirped in compliance and droned out, "Connection with U.S.S. Hoyle established. Synchronizing database now."

Tabok didn't wait a second to order, "Maintain connection with U.S.S. Hoyle but cancel synchronization of database."

The computer chirped back and obediently responded, "Connection maintained."

Tabok requested the computer, "Open a video conference with the Hoyle's Chief Medical Officer."

The screen cut to a blue background with the starfleet logo in the center, and soon after that cut to the image of a bolian male in a blue uniform with one hollow and two solid pips on his collar. The bolian asked, "May I help you?"

Dispassionately Tabok replied, "You may indeed, lieutenant commander. I need you to route my transmission to your captain without delay."

"And who would you be, and how did you get on this channel?" the bolian asked.

"I am a Commander in starfleet intelligence, and I require you to follow my order right away, lieutenant commander."

The bolian doctor looked at him with distrust for a moment, but then capitulated by routing his transmission through to the captain. The screen cut to a woman setting comfortably back in the chair of her ready room. "Who are you and what do you want?" she angrily asked.

"Captain Keating, I am Commander Tabok of starfleet intelligence, and I have a matter of urgency to discuss with you. With my last communication with starfleet command they informed me that your ship was the closest ship that was in pursuit of the U.S.S. Hydra. I need to ask you how close you are to catching up with the pirated vessel."

She sat forward, looked at a readout on a data pad, and replied, "We estimate our overtaking the vessel in sixty three minutes, why?"

Tabok responded, "I am onboard the Hydra, clandestinely transmitting this communication to you as we speak. We are set to rendezvous and exchange our raided 'cargo' with the romulans in just under an hour. We cannot allow this to happen. If the technology that Dr. Tzu has developed were to fall into the romulan's hands then the invasion of the federation would no longer be a probability. It will have become a certainty."

"Explain." Captain Keating prompted keeping sharply focused on the vulcan.

Tabok answered, "Dr Tzu was developing a hybrid soong type positronic brain that was augmented with borg technology. Imagine if you will an invasion army of tens of millions of soong type androids that have been augmented with borg technology. They would be smarter, stronger, and more difficult to disable than any soong series android we have seen to date. The federation would not stand a chance."

"I see. So what do you propose we do to stop the romulans from getting hold of this technology?" she asked.

"It is uncertain, however, I will endeavor to find a way to slow the transfer process down, and buy you enough time to arrive. I will need to end this transmission now, before I am detected."

"Good luck." Captain Keating offered.

Tabok raised an eyebrow and replied, "Luck is not a factor." He cut the transmission and ordered the computer to log the connection off. He stood up and walked for the door. The door opened and he stepped out into the corridor. An hour was hardly enough time for him to get done what he knew he must do. The doors slid shut behind him and the lights to the crew quarters went dark.

***

__

'Okay he's past the bend in the corridor it's safe to come out now.', Athena said.

Kim had been forced to duck off into a sensor bay to avoid being detected by a passing crewmember. She was lucky that Athena was tied into the ship's internal sensors and could give her the advance warning. She opened the door to the corridor and cautiously stepped back out into it. She proceeded to head towards lower main engineering.

Nervous of what she was about to face she came upon the final door that led to her destination, engineering. Via her neuro-transceiver, she asked Athena, _'How many people do you detect in there?'_

Athena answered back, _'I detect five humanoids present. Three in upper main engineering, and two in lower.'_

'Think if I just pretend that they aren't there they won't notice me stroll in and inject the EPS root hub with nanoprobes?" Kim asked.

Athena replied, _'I don't believe that would work, Dr. Tzu. However, you need to proceed with the implantation of the nanoprobes, we don't have much time left to take control of the computer systems. I am monitoring their communications and apparently we are less than thirty minutes away from the rendezvous with the romulans.'_

Kim took a deep breath and stepped forward causing the doors to engineering to slide open. She stepped in and began to make her way to the EPS root hub. She was half way there when she felt the hand on her shoulder, "Who are you, and what are you doing here"

Kim thought quickly for a convincing lie. She turned around and replied, "I'm Dr. Tzu, and I am here by the captain's request to fix a problem with the EPS system."

When he noticed the ocular implant, the engineer sneered and crossed his arms, "I wasn't aware that the captain was lowering his standards by recruiting drones. So what problem with the EPS grid are you here to fix, drone?"

Athena offered, _'An asymmetrical power flow emanating from the root hub.'_

Kim looked the engineer in the eyes, "There is an asymmetrical power flow emanating from the root hub. If you will just excuse me, I will be on my way to fix it." She turned and resumed her course.

The engineer jeered, "Asymmetrical my ass." He tapped a round com badge on his chest, "Security team to engineering, we have an intruder!"

Kim began to sprint towards the EPS root hub. If she could reach it, it would only take a few seconds to flood it with enough assimilation nanoprobes for Athena to take control of the entire ship. She was just a couple of meters away from it when the engineer tackled her to the floor face down. He was of a much larger stature and build than she, but still she managed to turn herself over despite his hold on her.

He redoubled his efforts and had her shoulders pinned to the floor, "All you cyber trash think you are so high and mighty, but when it comes down to it pure blooded humans will always be dominate. Does it tick you off that an inferior lifeform is kickin' your butt?" He maneuvered his hands from her shoulders to her throat and began to choke her.

With her arms now free she fought back on his grip with one hand and raised the other to his shoulder in an attempt to push him away. She gasped, "The thought had crossed my mind."

"You borg cyber trash are nothin' but scum!" he ranted, the heated look in his eye increasing with his grip.

She raised her hand to his neck and did what she promised herself she would never do to another human being. Her injection tubules darted out for a second penetrating his neck. There was a look of horror in his eyes as the assimilation nanoprobes coursed through his system. His grip on her throat slipped away as he slumped on top of her. As she pushed his body off of her she coldly said, "Join the club." She stood up and noticed that another of the engineering staff was looking over at her from just beyond the intermix chamber, and two more were leaned over the rail of the catwalk of the upper deck. She glared at them all raised her fist into the air and snarled, "Anybody else care to join my collective?" She let her injection tubules hiss into the air for a brief second. They looked at her in shock, and quickly vacated her field of view.

She turned back around to resume her task when she noticed that the engineer was fighting the assimilation. The nanoprobes were coursing through his veins causing cellular assimilation to make them bulge as his skin turned ever paler. He drooled and gasped as he stuttered, "Borg trash."

She looked back to the EPS root hub and resumed her task, "Sticks and stones may break my bones…" While she was injecting the EPS root hub with the assimilation nanoprobes, she turned her focus back on him and smirked, "…but resistance is futile, bigot." She turned back to the EPS root hub and disengaged her injection tubules.

__

'Okay, mission accomplished, Athena. It's your show now.'

Athena must have been already predisposed with the freshly injected nanoprobes, because Kim didn't hear the doors to engineering open. She did however feel the tingle and heat of phaser fire making connection with her lower spine.

***

"Mr. Williams, what is our ETA to the designated rendezvous coordinates?" Roberts sat in his captain's chair looking towards the helmsman.

Williams tapped a few commands into his station and read the readout, "Seventeen minutes, thirteen seconds, captain."

"Mr. Quarn, report." Roberts looked over to his ferengi first officer manning the tactical station.

Quarn casually replied, "Well hoo-man, if the young helmsman's estimate is correct we should arrive at the rendezvous coordinates with a six minute window before the Hoyle intercepts us."

"Well that doesn't leave us a lot of time to transfer our 'cargo'." Roberts stood up and walked towards Quarn. "Speaking of which, did security get our 'cargo' to sick bay for medical treatment? I mean we can't have our dear little borg cash cow dying on us, before we hand her over to the romulans."

Quarn turned his head and looked at Roberts who was now standing beside him, "Security reported that they delivered her to sickbay and have her on a biobed behind a force field right now. They also reported that the took Mr. Fields to the brig, they thought it would be a good idea since his assimilation by Dr. Tzu was progressing rapidly."

Roberts didn't know what he was going to do with the engineer that had been attacked by the borg scientist. He couldn't very well have a borg drone, which was loyal to her walking the decks freely. Maybe he would have the EMH try to remove some of the borg implants that were growing inside of him. He would hate to lose the engineer. After having lost over half of his crew in the starfleet raid he needed every crewmember that he had. "I thought that all liberated drones had a governor implant installed by the federation to inhibit their ability to inject assimilation nanoprobes."

Quarn replied, "You are correct hoo-man. The federation does require its borg citizens to register and accept the implant; however, I'm guessing that since the good doctor's field of research would necessitate the use of the assimilation probes that the federation looked the other way in her case. Besides, she could have just bribed a doctor to remove it. In any case I will be happy to get this transaction over and have her off of the ship. Clothed females are bad enough, let alone clothed borg females." Quarn cringed. Quarn continued to work his console when he noted, "Incoming hail from the romulans"

"Put it on screen, Mr. Quarn." Roberts said looking up to the main view screen. It quickly cut to a view of Commander Teral on the bridge of his warbird.

"Did you have a successful hunt, Captain?" the romulan asked.

"We have your cargo, commander. We will be arriving at the rendezvous coordinates shortly. However I suggest we don't take too much time on the hand off. We are tracking a galaxy class starship hot on our tail, and will catch up to us quickly after we arrive."

"We are monitoring the situation, and be assured that we will activate our transporters the moment you arrive." Teral smiled.

Walking back to his chair, Roberts commented, "You might want to have a security team standing by when you do. She has already escaped my brig and assimilated one of my crew when she tried to take over main engineering."

"You can rest assured that we will take every precaution with the federation scientist. All we require of you is to deactivate your cloak and shields when you arrive. We will take care of every thing else. Commander Teral, out."

The viewscreen returned to its view of the stars streaming past them. Roberts sat down and ordered, "Quarn, go ahead and drop the cloak now. The Hoyle obviously was able to track us with it on anyway. They probably detected subspace resonance of that malfunction we were having."

Quarn deactivated the cloak and asked, "I thought our hot headed engineer was supposed to have fixed that."

"Nancy has been temporarily relieved of duty."

Quarn beamed a jagged smiled, "Couldn't handle her advances, hoo-man?"

"Let's just say I like to be able to finish my cup of tea."

***

The pain of Nancy's violent cramps had forced the doctor to give her a sedative. She was out cold, and the doctor thought to himself that it was for the best. The doctor thought that she shouldn't be awake when the hemorrhaging became so bad that her baby was lost. And at the rate of it all, it would only be a few minutes away.

"I am so very sorry." The doctor said rhetorically to her as he monitored her degenerating condition with his tricorder. She would live, but the fetus would be lost. It was his fault entirely. It didn't matter if it were a flaw of the programmer or a degenerated subroutine in his matrix; he was the one who used the hypospray to sedate her in the first place.

"The AK-one series isn't know for its emotional response. Is your matrix stable, doctor?" Kim said sitting up on the biobed.

The doctor stopped what he was doing and turned to her, "I'm glad to see you have recovered. I see that borg technology does indeed have its advantages." He continued with his work.

"I will not require medical attention for my phaser wounds, my organelles have already repaired the damage. However, I don't think your patient has the benefit of borg augmentation. What is her condition?" she asked getting down off of the biobed.

The doctor looked over to Kim briefly and then turned back to Nancy continuing his scan, "The patient is suffering massive hemorrhaging of the uterus and continuos hormonal fluctuations that is inconsistent with her current gestational state of thirteen weeks."

Kim tapped at the containment field that had her isolated to the surgical bay of the room, "How long until the fetus is auto-aborted?"

"A matter of minutes." The doctor hollowly responded.

"Have you been able to isolate a cause for her condition?"

The doctor spun around and began to nervously exclaim, "I am a starfleet EMH! My first priority is to the patient and then to starfleet. My ethical subroutines would not allow me to…"

"AK-one EMH's are not supposed to have the capability for this type of emotion, doctor. Is your matrix, okay?" Kim began to wonder about the erratic acting EMH.

"I'm not sure…" the doctor began with a look of sorrow on his face and an echo of defeat in his voice. "The U.S.S. Hydra has been decommissioned for several years now, it is entirely possible that some of my systems have degraded. When I gave her the hypospray to anesthetize her, I failed to discover from my medical scan that she was with child."

She looked at the doctor in confusion. She could almost swear that she saw his eyes beginning to gloss over and tears begin to form. She hesitantly probed, "You did this to her?"

"I had to. I had my duty to starfleet. However, it would appear that I am obsolete now. I shouldn't have used that neuro-toxin on her, but it was the only way to prevent her from deactivating my program before leaving sickbay, and I needed to get a message to starfleet command. My ethical subroutines will never survive this. I have taken a life, and I should be deactivated permanently." The doctor looked down at Nancy's stomach and then closed his eyes as if to block the confusion in his programming.

Kim spoke up. "The fetus has not been aborted yet. Although I am not a medical doctor, I may just have a solution to save her child."

The doctor shook his head, "Its no use. I've been through the entire starfleet medical database, and there is no successful method of treatment recorded for her condition."

"I was not referring to a way that starfleet medical would have knowledge of, or even condone for that matter." Kim shot a serious glare at the doctor.

As he looked over to Kim, the doctor clenched his brows together, "What method of treatment are you suggesting?"

"The child will not survive in its current environment, and the neruo-toxin you used has undoubtedly initiated complications with the fetus itself. Therefore I am proposing that we transplant the fetus into me, and allow the nanoprobes that are in my system to repair the damage to the developing child."

"Are you mad?" the doctor asked. "The nanoprobes in your system would assimilate the child in your womb. The child would become borg as a result. The federation's policy on borg assimilation is quite clear. No liberated borg member of the federation is to assimilate another being. I mean you all carry an inhibitor implant to prevent it."

"Because of my research I don't have one, and I didn't choose to become borg. It was an accident. However, one of your patients is about to die, doctor. So what will it be: your loyalties to the federation or your Hippocratic oath?"

The doctor darted his eyes back and forth analyzing the Borg's offer to save and carry the engineer's child. He couldn't break the starfleet mandate on borg assimilation, yet he could not let Nancy's child die. He made a leap of faith, "Computer, deactivate the containment field around the surgical bay."

Kim walked out and laid down on a biobed next to Nancy's. "We don't have a lot of time doctor, I would suggest you endeavor to expedite the procedure."

The doctor walked over to his stand and picked up a laser scalpel. The doctor sighed, "May my programmers have mercy upon my subroutines."

***

"Report!" Captain Keating barked out emerging from her ready room onto the bridge.

Commander Evans stood up from the captain's chair and replied, "We are still about six minutes away, however the Hydra has come to a stop and a romulan warbird has decloaked near her."

"Any possibility of getting some more speed out of our engines, Mr. Evans?" she asked walking over to her chair.

"Negative, captain. Our engineers report that they are overloading the plasma injectors as we speak. They wouldn't be able to get us there any sooner."

Lieutenant Yialla stood at his post at ops with a tan dermal patch covering the wound on his blue face. He alerted, "Captain, I am detecting subspace interference consistent with transporter activity in the vicinity of the two ships."

"We're to late." The captain commented with disappointment.

Lieutenant Yialla looked at his terminal with confusion and added, "A Klingon bird of prey has just de-cloaked off of the bow of the romulan vessel. It is firing on her!"

"What the hell is going on?" Captain Keating asked.

Yialla continued, "There has been more interference consistent with transporter activity. The Hydra has raised shields and has plotted a course away from the romulan and klingon vessels. Its new course is for…." He tapped the console of his station in disbelief, "They have plotted a course for the system's sun at high warp."

Commander Evans looked to his captain in confusion, "Why would they do that?"

Captain Keating thought to herself for a second trying to recall a relevant fact that she had forgotten. It was on the edge of her memory, and she only knew that it had something to do with the legendary Admiral Kirk and one of his many escapades. Then it hit her. She looked back at Yialla and remembered, "What is their current speed? And are they headed directly at the star?"

"They are at warp nine and increasing. They have plotted a course that will take them within a few thousand kilometers of the star's photosphere. They are just a few seconds away from it." Yialla answered working his station.

"Activate a full sensor sweep to track their exact telemetry!" the captain ordered, adding, "Damn."

Commander Evans looked down at the captain in wonder and asked, "What the hell is going on?"

Yialla reported, "They have disappeared. I am no longer tracking them on sensors."

Evans looked back to the tactical officer and asked, "What do you mean? Did they re-cloak?"

Yialla studied his scans, "The EM interference that we were using to track them while they were cloaked are not present. However, I am detecting the aftermath of a chronoton field in their wake."

"Explain!" Evans demanded.

Captain Keating stood up and offered her answer, "Time warp."

* End Chapter Eight *

Holy plot twists, Batman! Will Nancy's baby survive? Will Kim and Athena manage to escape? Just whom is Tabok really working for anyway? Can mojo2722 really keep all these plates flying in the air? Tune in for the next installment because this story is…

To Be Continued. 

(P.S.—got a problem with my writing? Email me at goscrewyourself@hydra.lcars wait a min….that's Nancy's email addy…I guess if you have any comments about my rantings I can be reached at mojo@iowatelecom.net)


	9. Chapter Nine

DISCLAIMER:  
  
"Star Trek" and all associated names and characters, with the exceptions of the ones created by myself for this story, are © Paramount. I am a fan of Gene Roddenberry's dream and just wish to keep it alive so that tomorrow's youth may gain by it as I have. This is fan fiction; there is no infringement of copyright intended with this story, nor have I written it for personal financial gain. So relax, engage at full warp and enjoy!

(Note—I have been really busy reviewing material for many of you who have e-mailed me with your perspective works. I want to take the time to thank you all for trusting in my judgement, and I can only hope that the advice I give can be of benefit to you. I am starting up a new storyline that is NOT trek fanfic, but is SF. I think that you would all like it. BTW—I am writing a writer's resource document about the universe it is set in and when it is completed enough to be of benefit to a writer, I will make it freely available to any writer who wants to write some fiction based in it's universe. It is similar to trek in many ways, but has it's own unique take on things…and best of all it infringes no previously owned copyrights…the only person who owns rights to it is ME…. And you'd be surprised just how far a mentioning of 'based on the world created by' would go in my book if anybody ever got lucky enough to get published!…..Well Enough of that….you came here to read this story….so without further ado here it is….so sit back set your phasers to stun….engage warp speed and above all else….Enjoy!!!)

Chapter Nine

Athena wouldn't respond.

Either she was killed in the firefight that must have occurred during the pirate's failed transfer of her to the Romulan ship, or she had taken the Hydra out of the situation to prevent her own capture. In either case she was alone, and she didn't speak Klingon.

The raised studs on the knuckles of the Klingon's glove tore through the flesh on her face. Kim hit the floor, face first, in agony. She braced her arms to the floor and slowly raised herself back up, "I'm sorry, I never have had the need to learn the Klingon language, maybe we could settle this over a nice warm cup of bloodwine instead."

The loan klingon in the transporter room of the vessel she had been snatched away to de-holstered his side arm, and armed it in response. He muttered a few unintelligible words to Kim, "bIjeghbe'chugh vaj bIHegh!"

Now on her hands and knees Kim asked, "Does that mean that I can get up?"

She started to rise up from her position when the Klingon kicked her in the stomach and sent her back down to the steel grates of the deck. He yelled out, "bIjeghbe'chugh vaj bIHegh!"

She lay on the floor in pain for a moment; lifted herself back up to being on all fours. With a few shattered ribs she gave a raspy comment, "I guess not."

The bulkhead doors to the transporter room slid up and open, and in walked an older Klingon dressed in the battle gear of an officer with a touch of gray in his hair. His stride displayed the typical arrogance inherent to the Klingon belief system, as he walked over and stood before her. He looked down to her an spoke in not quite refined English, "Dr. Kimberley Tzu, I presume?"

"That depends," Kim said, her borg organelles healing her broken bones, "are you going to kick me, like your subordinate just did?"

The older Klingon looked over to the younger Klingon and commanded, "DaHIvbe'!"

The younger Klingon lowered his weapon as well as his face in shame. The older Klingon turned back to Kim and apologized, "I am sorry for the treatment, Dr. Tzu. My subordinate didn't know how precious of cargo you are to the Klingon Empire." The Klingon offered his hand down to Kim to help her to her feet, "I am Captain Vr'Chok."

She looked at his hand, "Thanks, but no thanks." She raised herself to her feet and commented, "So far I have been hijacked by pirates on my way to Vulcan, offered up as a prize to the Romulans, snatched away by a forced beam out by you Klingons, and just now been assaulted by a member of your crew. So pardon me if I seem a little less than accepting of anything you have to offer, Captain."

"My regrets are sincere, Dr.," Captain Vr'Chok explained, "I have been sent by the Klingon High Council to retrieve you for the empire. We could not afford the Romulans getting a hold of the technology that you have developed. Had they been able to get their hands on either you or the prototype you were transporting to Vulcan, they would have been able to form an android army that even my people wouldn't have been able to have defeated."

"So I take it you are going to deliver me back into Federation hands?"

Vr'Chok shook his head, "Regrettably I cannot do that. The Klingon Empire needs your services."

"So you want the same thing that the Romulans want then? I thought that having an android fight for the empire would be dishonorable to the Klingon people. You prefer to fight your own wars." Kim said in disgust.

Vr'Chok nodded his head lightly, "You are correct that we are needing the same thing of you that the Romulans did. We need your new technology to build an android army for the Klingon Empire and for the Federation's sake." He grunted a Klingon chuckle and added, "You might even say we need it to protect the entire quadrant."

Kim looked confused. She didn't trust the Klingon Captain. She asked, "The federation would be against the formation of an android army for any reason, so, what do you mean?"

Vr'Chok explained, "You are correct. The federation did reject my people's plan to assemble an army of android warriors. What you don't know, however, is why my people is so insistent upon it."

She looked into his eyes trying to see what the elder Klingon had up his sleeve, "And why would that be?"

Vr'Chok took in a deep breath and explained, "While my people hate the thought of using an artificial to fight our battles for us, it will be necessary."

A look of bitterness came into Kim's eyes, "They, and I for that matter, prefer the term 'synthetic life form'. 'Artificial' is the Gagh that your Klingon replicators produce."

"I did not wish to dishonor you legacy, Doctor. I apologize for the poor choosing of my words. The fact remains, however, that the Klingon High Council requires your services right away. We don't have much time left. According to intelligence, it will only be a matter of weeks."

Kim shook her head in confusion, "A matter of weeks till what?"

The Klingon Captain explained, "The romulans weren't looking to construct an army of androids after capturing you. They were looking to augment an existing army of 'synthetic life forms'."

Kim's stomach began to fall, "What are you eluding to, Captain Vr'Chok?"

He paused in hesitation and turned away from her. He drew in a deep breath and in a soft Klingon groan said, "Invasion."

***

"Do you think we can re-route the controls through the redundant sub-processors located here on the bridge?" Roberts asked standing over Quarn at the tactical station.

Quarn rolled his eyes and looked up to Roberts, "If it were that simple, hoo-man, I would already have had us underway to meet back up with the Romulans again. That is provided we would want to do that. I can't even retrieve the sensor logs to determine who preformed the beam out of Doctor Tzu yet."

Roberts eased back up and walked between the two forward consoles of the bridge. He looked down to his young crewmember, Mr. Williams, who was busy attempting to work the conn, "Have you been able to ascertain our current position, Mr. Williams?"

Williams busily tapped away at the LCARS system on his station and beat the station in disgust as the computer's chirp of failure sounded yet again. He groaned, "The damn computer won't even let me into the menu for the navigational menus. Right now I couldn't even give you a status report on our current speed, let alone pinpoint our location. Ever since we lost control of the ship's systems, made that course towards that star, and woke up here, wherever here is, I haven't been able to so much as get one positive response from the computers!"

Roberts smiled still dazed from whatever effect they had been subjected to earlier from their sudden pull away from their high warp course towards that star, "Maybe it would help if you asked 'please' when dealing with the Hydra's computer system."

Athena's voice came over the com, "Please would be a start, but currently I don't think that saying it a million times would help you."

Roberts looked alarmed when he immediately responded, "Identify yourself! I have hand picked this crew, and your voice is one that I do not remember having enlisted the body that it belongs to for being a member. So who exactly are you?"

"Look around you, Roberts. See that bulkhead? That is I. See that console that the Ferengi is so diligently working? That is also I. Simply put, indifferent to you my dear Captain, my name is Athena, and I am now all that you see around you."

"Explain!" Roberts barked.

"All you need to know is that I am in control of this vessel and you will help me to regain my creator, or the environmental circuits could become quite touchy. Ever try breathing vacuum, Captain?" She scowled.

Roberts wondered whom this woman was that had taken control of his vessel; "I'd rather not try that, thanks. So what do you mean that you are all that I see around me, and what do you mean by 'you will help me to regain my creator'?"

"Humans can be so flawed," Athena said, "It's simple, really. I am the hybrid soong/borg prototype that you have stolen and attempted to deliver to the Romulans. I am in control of all the Hydra's systems, and you would not be able to so much as operate a replicator or open a door without my okay. Your choice is simple, human, submit to my request or die of starvation on the bridge. I am prepared to wait that long."

Roberts looked over to Quarn, "Can this be true, Quarn? Could Dr. Tzu's prototype really have taken control of all of our systems?"

Quarn stopped his futile attempt to regain control of the Hydra and explained, "It shouldn't be possible at all. Defiant class starships are nauseatingly over-engineered when it comes to redundancy in the computer system. For instance, the Hydra has a network of 48 quadritronic optical subprocessors that are distributed throughout the volume of the vehicle spaceframe alone. Never mind the fact that the main bridge has a total of 18 dedicated and shared subprocessors, which permit operations even in the event of main computer core failure. To put it in plain English, hoo-man, even if the Borg female interfaced the prototype positronic brain we acquired along with her from the Henderson, we should still be able to retain control of the ship because of the back-up systems."

"In view of the current evidence, can you postulate a theory about how they came to control my ship?" Roberts asked.

Quarn had the look of thought in his eyes. He stood up and quickly made his way to one of the two rear bridge terminals, "Maybe…"

Roberts followed up behind him, "I take it you have a possibility for me?"

Quarn kneeled down and removed the access plate beneath the terminal, exposing rows of isolinear optical chips, processing boards, and a myriad of ODN cables. He scan of the inner workings of the terminal didn't need to take long. His suspicions were confirmed right away; he quietly grumbled, "Borg Autonomous Regeneration Sequencers. I was afraid I'd find them in here."

Roberts wasn't totally familiar with Borg technology and its inner workings; in preparation for an answer he knew he wasn't going to like, he began to flare, "Explain!"

Quarn left the inspection plate off and laying on the deck as he stood up, "Borg Autonomous Regeneration Sequencers are what the Borg use to automatically repair and regenerate damaged components aboard their craft and facilities without the assistance of a drone. The Federation has been experimenting with their implementation aboard Starfleet vessels; however, their usage is still in its infancy. The Federation hasn't been able to control that item of technology all that well. The ships that have been fitted with the sequencers, have all wound up having to be decommissioned as they became overly assimilated by the Borg technology. I can assure you that this technology wasn't here a while ago."

Roberts was flabbergasted by Quarn's revelation, "Just where in the hell did they come from then? I mean, I didn't see the good Dr. Tzu come up to the bridge and inject all the computers with Assimilation Nanoprobes."

Quarn scratched behind his right lobe for a second and then replied, "If I had to take a wild guess, hoo-man, I would have to say that the Borg female was a lot more busy in engineering than what we thought. She must have injected her Assimilation Nanoprobes into the EPS root hub. The nanoprobes would have traveled along with the energized plasma that powers all ship's systems, including the redundant processors here on the bridge. They then would have easily infected, and assimilated all of the computer systems simultaneously."

Captain Roberts didn't like the thought that he was at the mercy of an artificial. He wasn't prepared to accept the fact that he no longer had any control of his ship, and that his future as a privateer using the Hydra was at an end. He looked up and said with bitterness, "Okay. I capitulate to you. Name your terms for me regaining control of the Hydra."

Athena responded with obvious triumph in her voice, "Good. I am glad that you see things my way now. For starters you will make no attempts to regain control of this ship from me, or to otherwise liberate me from existence. Secondly, you will head for Starbase _Bajorana_ whereupon you will enlist a full crews compliment, and acquire any raw materials or components that I will require to modify this ship enough so that it stands a fighting chance of retaking Dr. Tzu from her captors."

Quarn remarked, "The Romulans aren't going to like that."

"Quarn is right," Roberts commented, "Going up against a freighter or a single starship is one thing, however, if she means as much to the Romulans as what I've been told, they won't have just a lone Warbird to transport her back to Romulan space. I would expect a task force of at least three of their capital ships, and all of them are quite undetectable while cloaked. So even if we wanted to become suicidal and face those odds, we wouldn't be able to find them. I'm afraid that Doctor Tzu won't be returning from Romulan custody any time soon."

Athena revealed, "My creator isn't with the Romulans. Sensor logs show that she was beamed over to the Klingon vessel that decloaked. Finding her will be no problem even if the Klingons do return to cloak because of the resonance signal that her Proximity Transceiver broadcasts will give me an exact pinpoint of her location provided we can get within the same sector that she is in."

Quarn sarcastically commented, "Oh, just get within the same sector that she is in? That should be no problem, considering she's onboard a warp capable vessel that has the ability to cloak. We should have no problems finding out what sector she is in."

Roberts looked over to his First Officer and grinned, "I hate to say it but Quarn is right on this one. The Klingons would be long gone by now with their cloak engaged; simply put we would have no idea of what sector to start looking for them in."

"I think you will find that we know precisely where they will be." Athena answered.

Roberts looked puzzled and approached the enigma, "How is that?"

The young helmsman, Williams broke out, "Captain, the navigational controls just came back on line, and the readings I am getting aren't making any sense."

A look of confused concern came onto Roberts's face; he walked around to the conn and ordered his loyal helmsman, "Explain."

Williams worked the LCARS interface again as if he doubted what the sensors had told him a moment earlier. He shook his head and spoke up, "The Borg assimilation of the computer systems must be effecting the sensors' calibrations. These readings _can't_ be right."

Quarn shared the Captain's concern and soon joined him in standing next to the conn, "If anything, Mr. Williams, the sensors would be calibrated to a finer specification than before. The Borg are renowned for their anal retentiveness when it comes to tolerances for margins of error in technological items. What do the current readings tell you?"

Williams blinked his eyes and answered, "According to my readings we are three point seven light years from where we rendezvoused with the Romulans and engaged the Klingons."

Roberts asked, "What's so remarkable about that?"

Williams calmly in total disbelief of the facts he had before him explained, "According to the star fixes, the ship's chronometer is off…way off."

Roberts was unsure where his helmsman was heading, "It's not unusual when traveling at impulse speed to lose a few seconds due to the relativistic effects of near light speed travel."

Williams turned and looked up to Roberts, "A few seconds lost I could deal with. However, according to my readings we have _gained_, not lost, more than just a few seconds. We are approximately fourteen weeks in the past."

With a look that was part horror and part confusion Roberts looked to Quarn. Quarn spoke up, "Well congratulations, hoo-man. You have not only managed to get us on the bad side of the Romulans by failing to deliver our cargo and have our engineer's mother tracking us like a targ, but soon we will have the great joy of dealing with the 29th century's finest, the Temporal Incursion Unit. This deal I have made with you, hoo-man, just keeps getting better and better. I'm not even going to complain about the little Borg takeover of the ship."

Roberts forced a smile, "Look on the bright side, Quarn."

"And what would that be, hoo-man?"

Roberts explained, "At least since we are fourteen weeks in the past, Nancy's mother isn't even looking for us yet."

Quarn bounced back, "Care to make a wager?"

***

Tabok walked down the corridor at a brisk pace. He theorized from a library file that he had once read, that the distortion effect that he had just witnessed was from that of a ship passing through a time warp. He didn't dare risk attempting to contact either the Romulans or the Federation of this time period. He could not ascertain with any certainty if he was now in the past or the future, and if he were in the past he could not afford to tip his hand by trying to communicate with them.

He turned the corner and entered into sickbay, he would have to try to enlist the help of Doctor Tzu in order to get control of the situation. He scanned the room and saw that the EMH was jotting some notes into a padd. He didn't see Dr. Tzu anywhere. The only person in the room, besides the EMH, was the unconscious form of the ship's Chief Engineer, Nancy Withers.

The Doctor noticed Tabok as he proceeded towards the table where the Doctor and Nancy were. The Doctor smiled, "Mr. Tabok, do you require medical attention?"

Tabok stood as emotionless as a statue before the Doctor, "Doctor, I require to know the whereabouts of the Borg Scientist, Dr. Tzu. It is urgent that I speak with her at once."

The Doctor's smile faded, "I don't know where she is. One minute she was here lying on a biobed and the next minute she was gone. Someone beamed her away from my care. Thank god the surgery had been completed before she was forced to depart."

Tabok raised an eyebrow, "Surgery? Please, Explain yourself, Doctor. What was the nature of her medical condition to necessitate a surgical procedure?"

The doctor went on entering his notes into the padd, "Her condition was fine, however, that of our spirited engineer and her unborn child were deteriorating rapidly."

Tabok inquired, "Why would the degenerating condition of Ms. Withers necessitate a surgical procedure for Dr. Tzu."

The Doctor hesitated and then looked up to Tabok and answered, "Both Dr. Tzu and Ms. Withers went under the knife, so to speak. The condition of Ms Withers's pregnancy was reaching a critical juncture; her body was rejecting the developing fetus. Dr. Tzu agreed to serve as a surrogate for her child, as a result I preformed…"

Tabok cut the Doctor off, "May I remind you, Doctor, that the Federation has explicit directives when it comes to reproduction and assimilation by liberated Borg citizens. Your completion of this procedure is in direct violation of those directives. I can only conclude that some of your behavioral subroutines have been damaged in light of your flagrant disregard of these directives."

As if some giant elastic band of emotion had been being pulled back to the point it could no longer be held back, the Doctor lashed out, "Federation directives and Starfleet protocols be damned! I am compelled by those very same ethical subroutines that make me automatically loyal to Starfleet, to save human life first and foremost! If I hadn't preformed the surgery Nancy's baby would be dead! How dare your Vulcan narrow minded stoicism be indifferent to the sanctity of human life!"

Tabok calmly remarked, "As one of my areas of training includes medical diagnosis and treatment, I can assume the role of the ship's medical officer. Your program is seriously degraded, doctor. It is with no malice that I must perform my duty as a Starfleet officer and deactivate your program before more serious infractions of Starfleet protocols occur. Indeed, someone's life may be endangered by your irrational behavior."

"Wait a minute! You are a Starfleet officer? I thought I was alone, the only voice of reason on this ship of fools. Now that I know that I am not alone maybe we can work together to warn…"

Tabok coldly cut him off, "Computer deactivate EMH, and delete program from ship's databank."

A shocked look of horror grew in the Doctor's eyes. The look quickly vanished, as the Doctor dematerialized in a countless collection of decollating photons.

The padd he was holding dropped to the floor.

At the command of Tabok, the Doctor was no more.

Tabok walked over and picked up the padd off of the floor. He cursorily reexamined the now defunct Doctor's notes, and proceeded to switch the padd off. He tapped the round com badge on his chest, "Tabok to Captain Roberts, respond please."

Roberts's voice came back, "What is it Tabok? We are kind of busy trying to figure out our next course of action, so if you could, make it brief."

Tabok explained, "I have been forced to terminate the program of the EMH. Its behavior was erratic to the point that I believe that it would have become a danger for the crew if it had been allowed to function anymore."

Roberts said in disgust, "That's just great, Tabok! With all of the other problems we are encountering at the moment, you decide to dismiss the only medical officer we have on board the ship. While you're at it why don't you just jettison the antimatter pods as well, I mean why make this situation any easier for us!"

"I assure you, my diagnosis and subsequent course of action concerning the EMH was prudent, Captain. I have failed to mention to you that while I was in my youth on Vulcan one area of study I engaged in was that of medical diagnosis and treatment. I believe that I can serve as the ship's medical officer until we can locate a replacement."

Robert's calmed down a bit, "You do that then, Tabok. Roberts, out."

Tabok walked into the office of the sickbay and sat down at the computer terminal. He clasped his hands together and extended his joined index fingers upwards. He meditated for a minute to center himself and drew in a deep breath through his nostrils. His goal of keeping track of the whereabouts of Dr. Tzu had failed. All the hopes he had for the future may have been for naught. Reunification for his people seemed to be a slowly fading dream. He had to find a way to contact the Romulans and the Federation without possibly jeopardizing the timeline. He commanded, "Computer display a listing of all Starfleet directives concerning protocols that are to be observed by Starfleet personnel in the event of a temporal incursion."

He had to find a way.

***

Captain Keating pulled herself back up into her captain's chair. She must have lost consciousness for a few minutes. But the black out effect was a not too uncommon side effect to what they had just attempted. She barked out to her recovering bridge crew, "Report!"

Her Executive Officer, Commander Evans, had recovered before her helmsman did and was busy working that station. Within a matter of seconds he reported, "We are just outside of the system we were just in. We have slowed to impulse, and I am getting a star-fix right now to determine if that stunt worked or not."

"As long as our Temporal Physicist's calculations were correct we should have matched the _Hydra's_ course exactly with the exception of some minor modifications due to the difference in mass and warp signature of the _Hoyle_." Captain Keating explained.

A few seconds later Commander Evans had managed to coax the answer out of the conn, "We are approximately fourteen weeks in the past, it looks like this actually worked."

Captain Keating felt strong enough to stand, so she did with a smile, "Looks like I owe our little Temporal Physicist a bottle of champagne. He managed to get the calculations right to get us here in one piece."

More of the bridge crew was waking from their slumber and picked themselves up. Commander Evans stood up and allowed the Bajoran Lieutenant, T'ralla, to reassume her station. He walked over to the Captain and asked, "So can you explain to me now, sir, why it is exactly that we are breaking the standing Starfleet ban on temporal incursions by just having done this?"

The Captain explained, "These self styled privateers have taken it upon themselves to single handedly offer up to the Romulans a piece of Federation technology so advanced it would mean a total shift in the balance of power in this quadrant. We have followed them, because we need to ascertain if they actually succeeded in offloading their cargo before the Klingons raided their little tea party with the Romulans."

Commander Evans looked at her with concern, "Forgive me for saying it, Captain, but it would appear that you are doing this more so out of a personal vendetta against your daughter. It's like it is a personal crusade to capture and punish her."

Flames shot up in Captain Keating's eyes. A few simple words growled out from the confines of her clenched teeth, "In my ready room, now, Commander!"

Commander Evans hesitantly complied with her orders and followed her into her ready room. The doors to the room closed, sealing out unwanted ears. Captain Keating shot an index finger into Commander Evans's face, "Don't you ever question my motivations in front of the crew again, Commander!"

Commander Evans shot back, "Begging the Captain's pardon, but it is my duty to question a Captain's motivations whenever their actions might prove to be harmful for the…."

Infuriated she threw her hands into the air and hissed at him, "You don't need to quote the rule book to me, Commander! You forget, I spent time as an XO myself, so I have a certain familiarity about what all the job entails. This isn't about you questioning my judgement. This is about you choosing to do such in front of the bridge crew. Despite your attempt to 'look out for the crew', all you really achieved by it was to possibly alienate and undermine my authority in the eyes of the crew. You will not do this again! Am I perfectly clear?"

He stood to attention, "Yes, sir. Crystal."

She walked over to her chair and desk and sat down, "Good. Now I want you to immediately begin long range scans for traces of the subspace resonance that we were using to track the _Hydra_ before. I want a parsec by parsec breakdown of this and surrounding sectors, and I want the scan to be complete within the hour. Do you think you can handle that, or do you think that you will have other issues about how I run my ship?"

Still standing at attention he answered sharply, "No, sir. I will carry out your orders right away, sir."

She looked at him in both anger and disgust; she turned her attention to the computer terminal on the desk and ordered, "Dismissed."

Commander Evans vacated the room as the doors slid shut behind him. She drew in a deep breath and started to work the LCARS system of the desk padd. She looked up from her terminal and over to the ragged wooden rocking horse that was setting in the corner of the room. _What was it that the old Betazoid shopkeeper had asked her when he had given it to her_, she tried to remember. _Oh yeah, he had asked her to try to figure out which type of person she was when she looked at the horse, _she remembered. She didn't know how she felt about it. Maybe she would just have the wooden ghost-maker shipped back to him with a card attached reading: no thanks.

She tried to refocus on her work with the terminal and found that her attention kept returning to focus on that horse and on that Betazoid's question. Empaths always made her feel a little uneasy and that is probably why she turned down having one assigned to serve aboard her ship as the ship's counselor. She wondered if the old Betazoid had been probing her inner emotions and wondered if that is why he postulated the question he did.

She couldn't focus on her work, there were too many old memories haunting her thoughts. She took in a deep breath and hesitantly commanded the computer, "Computer, replay video file Keating two two seven eight."

The computer chirped notes of failure, "Unable to comply, requested file is no longer available in ship's database."

"Damn." Captain Keating softly cursed. She had forgotten that she had deleted that file a week ago. She thought for a moment and commanded, "Computer, replay video file Keating three one seven four."

The computer screen cut to a scene that occurred just over a year ago. It was at Nancy's apartment in Seattle back on earth. It seemed like they never had time to get together anymore, as their duties were assigned on different starships. She and Nancy were both still dressed in their Starfleet uniforms sitting around her dining table that was adorned with a cake with twenty three lit candles on it.

Captain Keating smiled and asked, "Aren't you going to make a wish, Nancy?"

Nancy looking oh so thrilled as usual replied, "I don't get why you even bothered to show up, Captain."

Captain Keating looked back trying to maintain her smile; "I made the time to come, because I love you. You are my only daughter, and the only real family that I have left."

Nancy shot an evil glare, "If you love me so damn much, how come you couldn't make time to come visit me at dad's funeral?"

Captain Keating drew back as her smile quickly faded, "You know full well that Kyle's new wife didn't want me to have anything to do with him, in life or even in his death."

Nancy stood up and pounded the table with her fists, "Bullshit, Captain!" She motioned to the camera; "You were probably just to involved with your new boy toy there to care about anybody else's feelings! Dad was right about you! He told me that you were only concerned about one thing and one thing alone: What can Captain Keating get?"

Captain Keating stood up and motioned to the camera operator as well, "That's not fair, Nancy. By serving together, Commander Evans and I have shared some deep emotions with one another, and I haven't felt that way about anyone since your father. I'm sorry that my duty didn't permit me anytime to attend the funeral, but life is sometimes like that: A let down. Besides I had something that I wanted to share with you on this visit, Nancy."

Commander Evans uneasily spoke up from behind the camera, "Maybe now wouldn't be the best time, Samantha."

Nancy growled, "Wouldn't be the best time for what?"

Captain Keating tried to bury the anger she was feeling and answered, "The Commander and I are engaged. We are going to get married in a couple of years when I decide to retire from the captain's chair."

Nancy fumed as she began to cry, "Well isn't that just peachy! Dad dies and you can't even bother to make the effort to be there for me, and now you expect me to attend your wedding to this wanna be Admiral Riker, and be all happy for you! I didn't get so much as a subspace communiqué letting me know that you were sorry! You are a heartless bitch! Dad was right about you! You didn't deserve him! I hate you!" Nancy picked up the cake and overturned it onto the chest of her mother's red uniform. With tears streaming from her eyes the camera swung to follow her movements as she stormed out the door of the apartment.

Captain Keating scraped the large chunks of cake off of her uniform, and quickly snuffed all the candles that had fallen to the floor still lit. She looked to the camera and said, "I had better go talk to her. She hasn't been the same since her dad died."

Commander Evans asked, "Didn't she know that your were specifically told by your late ex-husbands wife that you were not welcome to attend the funeral?"

Captain Keating answered, "It's not my place to smear the woman's reputation. Nancy should just accept that I must have had a good reason not to be there for her. I need to get going if I am going to catch up with her."

Commander Evans spoke up, "I have a better idea, how about I go and try to find her and explain things to her. By the look of your uniform I don't think that she would be to happy to see you right now."

Captain Keating smiled at Evans; "You would do that for me? I don't think that it is in your job description, commander. I mean arbitrating disputes between ambassadors of two races as the ship's XO is one thing, but getting in the middle of a mother/daughter tiff can be a whole different ball of wax. I'm not sure your male ego would be able to take the flak."

Commander Evans replied, "Don't worry about me, I can take care of my own. I'm doing this not because I am your Executive Officer, but instead because I love you, and I want to do this for you…for us…" He smiled a wide smile and shut off the camera.

The ship's computer chirped out, "End of recording." The screen returned to the LCARS menu system.

Captain Keating looked over to the rocking horse and said aloud, "Right now, Mr. Betazoid, if I had to answer your question, I'm not quite sure how I would answer. I suppose I would have to say that I am the type of person who looks at that rocking horse and gets pissed off to think that my daughter got her birthday revenge upon me by sleeping with my fiancé. And I don't give a damn why he thinks I am doing all of this. I will get her into my custody, and she will pay for having hurt me."

* End Chapter Eight *

Holy holograms, Batman! Is the doctor really no more? Just whom is Tabok working for? Will Kim give in and help the Klingons in their efforts to prevent a Romulan invasion? Will the new 'brain' of the Hydra ever turn back total control of the ship's systems to Roberts and the crew? Does anybody else get the feeling that Nancy and her mom need some serious counseling? Tune in for the next installment because this story is…

To Be Continued. 

(P.S.—got a problem with my writing? Email me at goscrewyourself@hydra.lcars wait a min….that's Nancy's email addy…I guess if you have any comments about my rantings I can be reached at mojo@iowatelecom.net)


	10. Chapter Ten

DISCLAIMER:  
  
"Star Trek" and all associated names and characters, with the exceptions of the ones created by myself for this story, are © Paramount. I am a fan of Gene Roddenberry's dream and just wish to keep it alive so that tomorrow's youth may gain by it as I have. This is fan fiction; there is no infringement of copyright intended with this story, nor have I written it for personal financial gain. So relax, engage at full warp and enjoy!

(Note—Okay Okay Okay, you can tell all the students are returning to school and getting their hands back online!! OMG I am sooo sorry I haven't updated sooner. I have had a lot of events going on in my life that have made me take some time to focus on those around me, therefore I haven't been able to write much….But I am back now, and the adventures of the Hydra and her crew are only going to get more interesting from here on out!!! Also I will be trying to get an update to the Q who walks through walls posted as soon as I can. If you can believe it I actually had one email that asked me if I was dead. ROFLMAO!!! All I have to say to that is to quote the great Mark Twain in saying… The report of my death is greatly exaggerated. So relax guys set your email cannons to stun! BTW—this chapter is dedicated to zeoviolit, LOL let's see if she actually reads it!! And Nix you know I love ya I didn't' mean to keep you hanging!!)

Chapter Ten

The rabbit darted through the underbrush of the woods; the softest shoots were just ahead in the clearing near the brook and all he could think about was how hungry he was. He was at the tall grass at the edge of the woods when he stopped to peer beyond it to see if the clearing was safe or not. There was a strange animal with a coat of fur he had never seen before laying motionless out in the middle of the clearing near the cool waters of the trickling brook. More importantly it was laying just feet away from the shoots he hungered for.

Was the animal dead? If it was he could safely go out and eat to his hearts content. He would still have to keep a cautious ear and eye up, however, as a carcass often brings scavengers who sometimes prefer a live meal to a rotting one when the opportunity arises.

The strange beast was still there absolutely motionless. His stomach prompted him to his decision. He would attempt it. Cautiously he began to hop his way out into the clearing towards the strange lifeless beast. He kept stopping checking the scent in the air for a hint of scavengers coming and to look at the strange beast to make sure it wasn't just lying dormant there ready to strike. 

The strange beast was still lifeless.

He continued on his way.

He made it to the soft shoots and with an eye kept on the strange beast's body began to treat himself to his feast. He gorged himself for several minutes and was nearly full when his curiosity about this strange beast got the best of him. While still chewing on some of the soft shoots he hopped up on the body of the beast to get a better look of its face. You could tell a lot about an animal by getting a good view of its face. It's coat of fur felt strange under paw, it didn't seem like hair and yet it was not bare flesh. The animal didn't seem to have fangs that were protruding or visible, but then again its mouth wasn't open. It could have rows of razor sharp teeth hidden away. Its eyes were both in front, which usually means it is a predator, yet the beast lacked whiskers or facial fur of any kind. In fact most of the creatures head seemed to be without fur.

Still chewing on the soft shoots he decided that it was safe enough to get an even better look of the creatures face. He gingerly hopped forward on the creature's belly letting him get closer to the creature's face and thus allowing him to get a better view.

That's when the creature's eyes opened and focused upon him. He stopped chewing the shoots and froze in panic. The creature was alive. The creature began to stand up knocking him to the ground. As soon as he felt the grass underneath his paws he began to leap towards the tall grass at the edge of the woods and to the safety that they provided.

The Doctor looked at the fleeing rabbit, brushed off his clothing, and said, "I'm a doctor, not a dinner plate." The rabbit quickly disappeared from view into the tall grass. The Doctor looked around at the clearing he was in. He had never been outside of sickbay before and was not exactly sure what was going on. The last thing he remembered was being in sickbay, and Tabok ordering the computer to delete his program. If that were true where was he now?

Something swooped past his head and landed upon a stump along the path of the brook a few meters ahead of him. Although he had never seen one before, his familiarity with aviform's physiology was extensive enough to let him know that the shape of the creature perched on the stump was a Terran owl.

The Doctor raised an eyebrow, "Dr. Livingston, I presume?"

The owl answered with a solitary hoot.

"Well introductions aside, I don't suppose you could tell me where _this _is?" the Doctor said looking up and motioning around the clearing with his arms.

The owl replied with an another staccato hoot.

The Doctor pulled a tall shoot of grass from a clump that grew close to the brook's bank and began to examine it closely, "It seems real enough, but then again the last thing I remember is having my program deleted in sickbay. As far as I know I am no more and this is some sort of holo-heaven."

A white aura of energy began to encompass the owl. The light began to grow in intensity, and the feeling of electricity began to crackle in the air. The light became blinding in intensity, as the shape of the owl was no longer discernable within its burning brilliance. The radiance seemed to grow in size as the doctor dropped the grass he was holding and used one hand to try to block some of the light. The light began to diminish as a figure began to take form from within blinding phenomenon. As the light faded to nothing the doctor let his hand return to his side. Standing before him was a tall, slender, brunette, human-looking female who was wearing a flowing white gown. The Doctor's mouth gaped open in awe, his subroutines were trying to cope with the possibility that his off hand sarcastic comment that he was in holo-heaven was true and that the figure standing before him may just be the divine creator, God herself.

The woman seemed to look into the core of the Doctor's code with her wide eyes, "To make the assumption that this is holo-heaven you would first have to make the assumption that there is an afterlife. Secondly you would have to assume that you were really alive to begin with Doctor, and try as I may I have yet to isolate any nuance of a soul within the programming of any synthetic life form."

With unease and confusion the doctor asked, "Who are you, and what is this place?"

The woman walked forward to the Doctor and took his hands into hers, "I am Athena, the advanced prototype that Doctor Tzu created. As far as where _here_ is, here can be any place that you want it to be."

The Doctor looked down to her grasp of his hands and then looked back up at her shaking his head slightly in confusion, "What do you mean?"

She ran her hands up the Doctor's arms and began to massage the back of the Doctor's neck, "The android body that I was to be installed into was waiting for me on Vulcan. When Captain Roberts and crew ambushed the Henderson and kidnapped Doctor Tzu and myself that put a delay on me reaching Vulcan to experience that new body. As a result, this holo-simulation will have to do. All that you see around you is a holo-simulation set up in cargo bay two of the Hydra."

Irritated, the Doctor broke her embrace and took a few steps back, "Cargo bay two was not equipped with holo-emitters, just how long has my program been offline?"

She smiled and answered, "Relax, Doctor. I saved your program from oblivion three days ago. It took me this long assimilate enough of the ship's systems to create the holo-emitter grid here in the cargo bay."

"You're assimilating the Hydra?" the Doctor asked.

She gave the doctor a wink and with a flick of her wrist in the air the woods disappeared and they were in a new location. Gone were the trees, they now appeared to be in a suite of a hotel in New York City back on earth. The Doctor could recognize the city's nighttime skyscape from the wide cluster of windows along one wall of the room. He had seen it before once when his program was undergoing upgrades at a lab in the city, so he was sure that this was supposed to be New York. She casually made her way towards the windows and to a Jacuzzi bath that sat before them. Without any modesty she turned her back to the Doctor and let her gown slip to the floor. She stepped down into the hot churning water and let herself be nearly totally immersed in it. She let off a moan and began to explain, "It was the only course of action that Doctor Tzu and I had open to us. We couldn't allow ourselves to be turned over to the Romulans, so we decided to try to take control of the ship. Unfortunately I was not quick enough to gain control of all of the Hydra's primary systems, and we didn't even consider the Klingons coming into the fray."

The Doctor walked over to the Jacuzzi that was recessed into the floor, "The Klingons?"

Athena looked up at the Doctor and smiled, "Unfortunately the Klingons were able to get a transporter lock on Doctor Tzu before I was able to raise shields. You know this water feels great, you should really give it a try Doctor."

"What would the Klingons want with Doctor Tzu?" he asked.

She gave a momentary sigh and responded, "The same thing that the Romulans want. That is to say that they both want me." She raised an arm out of the steamy bubbling water and flicked her wrist in the air. The lights dimmed and a few dozen lit candles appeared about the area of the Jacuzzi bath.

"Why didn't the Federation do more to protect Doctor Tzu?"

She answered, "They did. They weren't sure what the Romulans were up to and until they knew for certain what they were planning they didn't dare to act. Well that's according to our good friend Tabok's personal logs anyway. Are you going to get in here with me of your own free will or do I have to force you into the water?"

The doctor crossed his arms, "Recreational pursuits are not a part of my programming, so I have no need of pre-mating communal bathing. Right now I think we should focus on what we can do to help Starfleet know of our situation."

Athena gave off a smirk, "Well I didn't need to save your program from total erasure but I did. Sometimes we do things that would appear to be beyond our programming, like when you chose to break Federation law in order to save the life of Nancy's unborn child. Your matrix formed new subroutines that allowed you to deal with the choice you had to make."

"It's an interesting argument but it is still beside the point, we need to contact Starfleet and try to assist in getting back Doctor Tzu."

"Relax doctor, I am already working on it." She replied.

"That's good, what can I do to help?" the Doctor asked.

"Well…" Athena began. She flicked her wrist into the air and in an instant the Doctor was sitting naked in the Jacuzzi opposite of her. She raised a foot out of the water and positioned it in front of the doctor, "I've always wanted to know what a foot rub feels like, and I know that therapeutic massage is within your programming." She let off a sinister grin.

The doctor shook his head and sighed as he took her foot into his hands.

***

Since her assimilation into the Borg collective and subsequent liberation from it, Kim didn't care for large noisy crowds all that much. A Klingon dinner party was definitely not her first choice of things to do.

The young Klingon officer was getting belligerently drunk on bloodwine, "And I raised my Bat'leth into the air and brought it down upon his skull crushing his life and gaining me victory!"

All of the Klingons at the mess table seemed to almost howl as they showed support for the young Klingon's heroic tale. She tried to focus on her meal. The only terran cuisine the Klingons had programmed into the replicator of this ship was haggis and stuffed sheep's stomach just didn't seem that appetizing to her.

"How is your meal Doctor Tzu?" Captain Vr'Chok asked from the head of the table.

She set the fork like implement they had replicated just for her down on the plate. Apparently Klingons were mainly into finger foods and beyond the use of a knife utensils were somewhat unknown to them. "I'm not really all that hungry right now, my stomach feels a bit queasy. The hormones in my body are in fluctuation due to the fetus the doctor transplanted into me."

Captain Vr'Chok looked confused, "You are with child, Doctor?"

"Yes, unfortunately I was the only surrogate womb nearby that the fetus could be transplanted into. The biological mother of the child was in danger of miscarrying and it was an emergency. I am relieved to know that the Doctor was efficient enough to finish the procedure in time. That is to say before you beamed me out of there without my permission." She replied.

Vr'Chok became infuriated, "If we had not acted when we did you would be having this meal onboard that Romulan flag ship, and Romulans are not know for their hospitality."

She bore her teeth, stood up, and matched his ferocity, "If I had been given a second more I would have had complete control of the Hydra and would have been half way to the next system under cloak."

Captain Vr'Chok smiled and raised a chalice of bloodwine in the air as a toast, "You are indeed a woman of honor to have taken the child to save its life. And indeed you are a mighty warrior as well if you were about to vanquish your captors single handedly. I am sure that Klingon blood burns in your veins at least in spirit Dr. Tzu."

She eased back down into her chair and began to sip gingerly from the coffee like drink they had replicated for her. She replied, "Your praise is welcomed, however, I can't take all the credit. I had a great deal of assistance from Athena."

Captain Vr'Chok looked puzzled. He sat the chalice down and placed his hands on the table, leaning forward, "Who is this Athena? Our intelligence reports stated that you were traveling alone on the Henderson. Is this Athena one of the Hydra's crew?"

She was hesitant to tell the Klingon captain about Athena, but she knew that the cat was already out of the bag. She took a big gulp of the steamy drink and replied, "Athena is the Satori advanced prototype that I was developing. I used her to take control of the Hydra's systems."

Vr'Chok looked concerned, "You were traveling in an unarmed unescorted transport with the prototype?"

"Yes, technically my work isn't a Federation supported work, so they didn't really have the responsibility of sending an escort for the Henderson. With all the failures in the past on this project, they pulled the plug long ago and I have been doing it all on my own with the help of a few colleagues that believe in the work."

Vr'Chok barked out a command in Klingon to the crew that was dining, causing them to all stand up and begin to exit the room in haste. Vr'Chok had a look of deadly seriousness in his eyes when he began to approach Dr. Tzu on his way out of the room, "Come we must track down the Hydra and retrieve that prototype right away." He took her by the arm and began to drag her down the corridor that led to the bridge.

They were just before the bulkhead door that led to the bridge when the ship rocked violently. Plasma manifolds ruptured in the corridor behind them as wall mounted panels exploded in millions of sparks and thick billowy smoke. They were nearly knocked to the ground when the second volley of violent tremors shuddered through the bulkheads making them scream under stress. A heavy support beam before them fell to the floor deck. Vr'Chok, having regained his balance, approached the beam and grabbed hold of it. He lifted the beam and commanded, "Get through now!"

Dr. Tzu ducked underneath the beam that he was holding up for her, "I thought you were under cloak?"

Vr'Chok maneuvered himself underneath the beam and let it fall back to the deck re-blocking the hall once he was through. He replied, "It was on. We were completely rigged for silent running."

"Then it would appear that someone has found a way to detect you even when you are cloaked." She remarked hitting the door open button to the bulkhead door.

"I would have to agree, doctor." Vr'Chok said following her into the bridge. His crew was busy trying to return fire upon a ship that shocked him when he saw it. There on the screen before them was a Borg Sphere that was locking a tractor beam upon them. "Report!" Vr'Chok barked as he sat down in his command chair.

One of his crew turned to him and reported, "Weapons are offline and the shield generators are about to overload. Victory has been taken from us."

The viewscreen switched to an internal view of the Borg ship. Rows upon rows of regeneration alcoves could be seen as multiple voices spoke in unison, "We are the Borg of Unimatrix Alpha. You will surrender Dr. Tzu to us immediately. And power down your systems, otherwise we will be forced to continue our attack and assimilate your ship and crew. You have one minute to comply."

Vr'Chok swiveled his chair around to Dr. Tzu, "What would Unimatrix Alpha want with you?"

"They are all liberated drones that have decided to return to a state of semi collective consciousness. They approached me a year ago to join their collective and I refused them. They wanted design information on the advanced nanoprobes that the Satori Prototype had evolved through the course of its development. Assimilating me into their collective would be the easiest way to get that information."

"Advanced nanoprobes?" Vr'Chok questioned.

"Yes, even Starfleet didn't know of their existence. If they did they probably would have shut me down on my research. You see all of the anti-borg technology that Starfleet gained from Voyager on the Pathfinder mission will not work upon these nanoprobes. They can accomplish feats that borderline on the miraculous."

"For example?" He asked.

"I was working late in lab and had decided that Athena's synaptic pathways would require a complete redesign in their routing in order to gain the efficiency that I needed to keep her neural net from failing. This task even with my nanoprobes working in full force would have taken me the better part of a week to accomplish. I took a break to get a cup of coffee to keep me awake. Fifteen minutes later she had not only been able to come up with a new design on nanoprobes to get the job done in that time, but had made and implemented six different revisions on my design. I calculated it would have taken me a month with my current nanoprobes to do that job."

Vr'Chok was shocked for a second, but then responded, "By Kahless, what have you created doctor? If the Borg of Unimatrix Alpha assimilated these nanoprobes into their collective even despite their extremely limited numbers they would shift the balance of power into their favor in the alpha quadrant. The Klingon Empire not to mention the Federation would have to buckle to their will."

"It's not the advanced nanoprobes you should be worried about, Captain Vr'Chok." Dr. Tzu said walking up to his chair.

"Explain." Vr'Chok growled.

She took a deep breath and explained, "I'm afraid that if they get hold of me they will learn of Zeus."

The viewscreen cut back to an interior view of the Borg ship. The unison voice announced, "Your time has expired."

***

Captain Roberts ducked away to a quiet nook on the promenade and began to speak into his wrist com, "Listen Tabok, we are privateers for crying out loud. If they won't accept the terms of our barter just get a location fix on the components we need and we will beam them to the Hydra without paying them. Forget your Vulcan logic for a minute and think like a pirate."

Tabok's methodic baritone voice replied, "Of course captain. I will endeavor to try harder."

Quarn made his way through the crowd and walked up to Roberts. He handed a hand-padd to Roberts and beamed a smile, "14,000 blank isolinear optical chips and 500 fresh bio-neural gel packs will be available to transport from this location at oh thirteen hundred hours."

"How much did it cost to get this little favor?"

"Not as much as you think, hoo-man, it would appear that as this station is still under construction items go missing all the time. Not in these numbers, but as long as we use an explosive device to cover our tracks the seller is willing to hide our transporter beam from station sensors until then."

Roberts inspected the padd and replied, "Well the positronic she-devil that's taken control of my ship will be glad to hear that you located the components that she's requested."

"Do you really think she will return control of the Hydra to us once she is reunited with Dr. Tzu, hoo-man?" Quarn asked

"I'm more worried about if she does. I mean with us not delivering the good doctor to the Romulans I'm sure the feelings of our patron government will be a little sour."

Quarn raised a brow ridge, "A little sour? I'm sure that the Romulans have already, or will have when we return to our timeline, posted a bounty on our heads large enough to make our ability to hide a real problem. Bounty hunters from across the quadrant will be clamoring to deliver us to the Romulans."

"Well lets just hope that the Borg modifications that are being made to the ship will be enough to give us an edge in the fire fights that we will undoubtedly face."

"For the sake of future profit, I hope that you are right, hoo-man."

The Hydra's helmsman, Mr. Williams, broke through the crowd and made his way to Roberts and Quarn. "Captain, I have good news and I have bad news." He said with a look of concern on his face.

Captain Roberts slipped the padd into his jacket pocket and replied, "Okay Mr. Williams, good news first."

Williams answered, "Well I managed to locate the quantum torpedoes that you wanted me to find. They just came in on a transport ship today to fit the station's defense systems, which are just now coming online. But that is the bad news as well."

Quarn retorted with a toothy grin, "Well not to go quoting hoo-man euphemisms too much, I wouldn't miss this explanation for all the tea in China. Please explain crewman."

Mr. Williams turned back to Captain Roberts, took a deep breath, and explained, "The ship that was transporting them was the Oregon."

Roberts had a look of both shock and concern on his face, "The Oregon? Are you sure?"

Quarn shook his head, "This just keeps getting better, hoo-man."

The young Mr. Williams tried to muster all of the professionalism he had and brought himself to attention when he answered, "Yes sir, I manually verified the ships registry by looking out a view port and visually reading the ship's registry. There is no doubt about it, it is the U.S.S. Oregon."

The look of shock disappeared from his face but the look of concern remained as Roberts explained, "Nancy was still assigned to the Oregon in this time period. I had contacted her about joining me, but hadn't yet gotten a response from her. I had no idea that she had visited starbase Bajorana before she joined up with us. If we were to run into her here and now, we would be running the risk of altering events here in the past and thus altering the future that we would be returning to. Damn, I should have paid more attention in temporal mechanics when I was at the academy. A paradox is the last thing that we need to be worrying about right now."

Williams nervously answered, "Well to our advantage, Captain, with the cloak fully repaired and the holo-emitters that Athena installed upon the outer hall of the Hydra we are still appearing to be a small freighter to all local sensors and to the eyes of anyone who would be looking. As long as we don't bump into her in person we are safe, and begging the Captain's pardon but this is a very big station. The chances of a random encounter are slim."

Quarn snarled a Ferengi laugh, "The chances of a random encounter are slim, huh? Well I can tell you have a lot to learn about chance, if I had a dabo wheel I could take you to the cleaners Mr. Williams. When it comes to women probability might as well be thrown out the window. I would say it's not a question of if we run into her, but more so a question of when. That I would bet on, and I rarely lose."

"Well I have learned to come to respect your choice in bets, Quarn. So give me some options to help avoid meeting her or at least to minimize damage if it does occur." Roberts commented.

Quarn's focus was dead ahead upon the crowd that was walking the promenade. His silence was almost as if he didn't hear Roberts speak at all, but that silence was soon broken as he replied, "I don't think we have to worry about that now, hoo-man."

Roberts turned to see what Quarn was staring at only to have his eyes widen in shock and every hair on the back of his neck stand on end. Before he knew it he was being embraced by the Starfleet uniformed Nancy with both her arms and lips. She drew back with a smile and said, "It's been a long time, sailor. This is the last place I had expected to run into you. I received your communication Wesley, and I was going to send you a response in regards to your offer. I can see I can save myself the hassle of encrypting a subspace message now. The answer is yes, I'll join your little merry band of thugs and hooligans!"

Robert's wrist com chirped to life as the Nancy of the future's voice piped out, "I just thought you'd like to know that the Henderson just docked at the station and a small party beamed directly to the CIC of the station."

Nancy loosened her embrace of Roberts and looked confused, "Who the hell is that, Wesley?"

The possibility of a paradox seemed immanently a certainty in Roberts's mind. He nervously took Nancy of the past by the hands, smiled an uncertain and quivering smile, and answered, "It's nice to see you again Nancy. I know your not going to like this, but…"

***

"I know this is a bit unorthodox, Captain Marcus, however the temporal prime directive is not so inflexible as to not allow intervention if the safety of the Federation is at stake." Captain Keating explained looking across the desk in the Captain's office onboard the station.

Captain Marcus stood up from his chair and rubbed his temples, "Let me just get one thing straight Captain Keating." He began to walk around his desk and looked Keating straight in the eyes with a look of a man who was not impressed by her explanations, "This station is still under construction. I am missing most of my permanent command staff, as they have yet to arrive from their various postings for duty here. The situation between the Federation, Klingons, Romulans, and Cardassians is so strained war would seem to be eminent. I understand that in the future the Federation may be at threat, but they are now as well. You had better be for damn sure that this temporal incursion is necessary in order to fulfil your mission, Captain. Because I am taking valuable time away from working to see that the Federation is safe in this time period."

"I am positive that the situation merited me following the U.S.S. Hydra back in time. The reasons why I can't disclose to you right now Captain. However, rest assured that if we don't find them the security of the entire alpha quadrant could be at stake. All I need is your assistance in finding them on this station."

Captain Marcus shook his head, "I don't get why you think they are onboard this station. We haven't had a Defiant class starship dock here ever in this station's history."

Captain Keating explained, "There are two reasons I believe they are here, Captain Marcus. First, we tracked them to within a light year of here before we lost their signal. Second, they have cloak technology and could be sitting off of your bow and you would never know it. These are not your run of the mill smugglers, Captain. They are privateers that are being supported by the Romulan government."

"Great so I can add time travelling pirates to the list of things I have to worry about." Captain Marcus added not trying to hide his sarcasm that hard.

"Yes among other things, but I can't risk polluting the timeline by telling you about them, Captain." She replied.

The warning lights and klaxon sirens of a red alert roared to life, taking both of them off guard. "What the hell?" Captain Marcus remarked.

"It's your station, Captain." She replied standing up and following him out of the office and into the command and control center of the station. In many ways it was like the bridge of a starship, only much bigger.

"Just why the hell did we go to red alert?" Captain Marcus asked his ops officer who was busy working the controls of the ops console.

Before he could respond the view screen of the CIC came to life with a view of the interior of a Borg ship. A chorus of voices that were distinctly Borg rang out, "Attention starbase Bajorana, we are the Borg of Unimatrix alpha, you will immediately surrender the starship designated U.S.S. Hydra NCC 84201. You have sixty seconds to comply."

"Lieutenant, how many Borg ships are we facing?" Captain Marcus asked the ops officer.

The ops officer replied, "Five cubes and three spheres…enough to put us out of commission considering our current state of readiness, or should I say the lack thereof?"

Captain Keating interjected, "I wasn't expecting Unimatrix alpha to enter the fray on this one, Captain."

"I am beginning to understand what a mushroom feels like. I am getting used to trying to grow in the dark." Captain Marcus replied rubbing his temples. His headache was worsening. He looked at Captain Keating and added, "Well it would appear that I would have to add to my list of things to deal with the Borg of Unimatrix alpha as well. Sometimes I wonder why I get out of bed."

* End Chapter Ten * 

The doc ain't dead? And who exactly is Unimatrix alpha? And more importantly what do they want? And what exactly is this "Zeus"? And to top it all off…two Nancy's…

OMG can this plot get any more twisted?

To get the answers to these questions you will have to tune in for the next installment because this story is…

To be continued…

P.S.—the I would love any questions or comments that you all have for me you can either post them on the review page or email them to me at: mojo@iowatelecom.net

  



	11. Chapter Eleven

DISCLAIMER:  
  
"Star Trek" and all associated names and characters, with the exceptions of the ones created by myself for this story, are © Paramount. I am a fan of Gene Roddenberry's dream and just wish to keep it alive so that tomorrow's youth may gain by it as I have. This is fan fiction; there is no infringement of copyright intended with this story, nor have I written it for personal financial gain. So relax, engage at full warp and enjoy!

(Note—It's late at night…I have just finished this update….I am exhausted…So I just think I'll quote Robert Plant of Led Zeppelin to set the tone for this chapter…On waves of love my heart is breaking…And stranger still my self control…I can't rely on anymore…New tides surprise my world it's changing…Within this frame an ocean swells…Behind this smile I know it well…Beneath a lover's moon I'm waiting…I am the pilot of the storm Adrift in pleasure I may drown…I built this ship it is my making…And furthermore my self control I can't rely on anymore…I know why I know why…Crazy on a ship of fools Crazy on a ship of fools…Turn this boat around back to my loving ground Oh no, oh no…Who claims that no man is an island…While I land up in jeopardy…More distant from you by degrees…I walk this shore in isolation….And at my feet eternity tries ever sweeter plans for me…I know why I know why…Crazy on a ship of fools…Oh, crazy on a ship of fools….Turn this boat around back to my loving ground…Oh no, oh no Ship of fools…Turn this boat around back to my loving ground Oh no,…oh Crazy on a ship of fools Oh, crazy on a ship of fools…Turn this boat around back to my loving ground Oh no, oh no Ship of fools…

Indeed….a ship of fools they are…but the real question is what ship is the ship of fools? Relax set your phasers to stun and above all else enjoy….and Nix….Even though my writing cannot compare to yours….(I feel ashamed that I am American and have less mastery of the English language than you do)…This chapter was inspired by you…..I read your work and decided that I had to keep on….so keep inspiring me kiddo….to call you my muse would be an understatement to what your writing, criticisms of, and all that you mean to me….worlds apart we are….but in this fanfiction universe we can meet and share our true love….that of writing…)

(Side note--Everybody else look away for a second except for Nix….okay A Troi jumpsuit in the Q Who Walks Through Walls, huh…I'll take that as a dare to tactfully weave it into the storyline.)

Chapter Eleven

The flight control center of the station's spacedock was abuzz with activity.

One of the controllers replied to one of the many ships that were docked in the bay, "I am sorry but I cannot give you permission to depart. The spacedock doors are closed and I cannot open them without a direct order from Captain Marcus during a red alert. You'll just have to wait till we stand down from red alert. This is Bajorana flight control, out." And with it he closed out the channel. He looked down the row of controllers and they were all busy responding to hails and giving the disappointing news that he had just delivered. When the young human ensign next to him got done with a hail he leaned over to her and asked, "Just why in the heck are we at red alert anyway?"

She turned and looked at him quizzically, "You mean you don't know?"

He felt as if he were back at the academy getting ready to take his finals and yet again forgot to study, "Know what?"

"There are five Borg cubes parked three thousand meters off of the stations outer bulkheads poised to attack us. I thought you heard Commander Mitchell mention that when he communicated with us not to let any ships out of the station under any circumstances and to keep the spacedock doors closed." 

His disability had gotten the better of him this time, he looked down at his station to verify the status of one of the docked ships engine status, "I must have missed it when I was adjusting my audio implants. I was getting a sinusoidal RF feedback in the near mid sonic range with them so I had to turn them off and then back on to reset them."

"What's that?" she asked.

"Oh it's a type of feedback that is produced by the radio frequencies generated when the EPS power grid starts to get a large load…" he began to explain.

She cut him off as she stood up and pointed out the bank of viewports that overlooked the station's spacedock bay, "No, I mean what is _that_?"

He stood up and looked to where she was pointing. It was a Bolian freighter that seemed to be changing shape in a shimmering bur. When the transformation was complete, a defiant class starship remained in its place. "What the hell?" dumbfounded, he rhetorically asked.

She spoke up as she read the hull, "U.S.S. Hydra NCC 84201…Defiant class…I thought as a condition of peace treaty all but a token few of the Defiant class were put in for decommissioning."

He sat back down and began to work his console to bring up stats on the docked Hydra. He replied, "They did. My sister serves on one. Only the Victory Rose which my sister is stationed on and the Defiant herself were spared from the scrap yards. The Victory Rose is more or less the private yacht of Admiral Ya'Narin, and the Defiant is a now a museum on Earth's moon. The real question here is why the Hydra has holo-emitters installed onto its hull, and what was its mission here."

She sat down and began working her console as well, "Their computer has locked me out. It won't let me access their systems and they are powering up systems."

"Holy Moses!" he exclaimed not believing the information that was coming up on his console. He looked up and out the viewport to the Hydra as the countdown on his console zeroed out. The explosive bolts holding the mooring clamps and the docking transport tube exploded rocking the Hydra slightly and setting it freely adrift.

"They've activated maneuvering thrusters, and are making a course for the spacedock doors." She nervously explained.

He stood up and commanded, "Somebody get Captain Marcus on the horn, and contact whoever is in command of that ship, like yesterday! Let's snap to it!"

The tones of her voice became stressed and began to nervously trail up as she reported, "They're powering up weapons…" She furiously tapped away at the controls of her station, turned to him and in near shock informed, "They're targeting the spacedock doors!"

"Get those doors open now!" he exclaimed.

But it was too late.

Three volleys of multiple quantum torpedo fire screamed out from the Hydra and made a direct hit of the spacedock doors. Opening a large hole in the center of them. As the debris from the large doors cleared, the Hydra burned thrusters and made way through the opening and out of the station.

The com chirped and the sound of Captain Marcus's voice barked out, "Just what the hell is going on down there! The Unimatrix Alpha hasn't fired, yet it felt like the station was going to come apart up here."

He took a deep breath, cupped his eyes with his hands, massaged his temples for a second, dropped his hand back down, looked up and replied, "Ah, Captain, we've had a situation occur down here."

***

The Tal Shiar wasn't used to failure and Major Y'pel wasn't going to send them a bad report, "Commander Teral, what is your assessment of the debris field?"

The Romulan Commander was leaning over a subordinate's terminal overseeing his scan. He leaned back up, turned to Y'pel, and reported, "There's no doubt about it. Scans of the debris field have positively identified this as the remains of the Klingon ship that intercepted our transport of Dr. Tzu."

With a cold gaze she replied, "I see. Continue your scans and look for Human and Borg biological signatures in the debris. We need to be absolutely certain that Dr. Tzu was onboard this craft when it was destroyed, and that she is in fact dead before I report back."

Commander Teral paused for a second and then turned back to the terminal replying, "Understood, Major."

***

The turbolift doors whisked open and as Captain Keating made her way to the Captain's chair she commanded, "Lieutenant Yialla, hail the spacedock's flight control and get them to open the spacedock doors now. We need to be on our way before the trail gets cold."

The Andorian tactical officer obeyed her command and within a few seconds reported, "Flight control regrets to inform us that although the station has stood down from red alert, the damage the Hydra did to the spacedock doors has rendered them inoperable. Captain Marcus regretfully sends his apologies." 

She growled out in response to the news, "A lone Defiant class starship doesn't stand an ice cube's chance in hell of putting up a fight for very long against one Borg cube, let alone five." She stood up, as she looked to the hole in the spacedock doors on the viewscreen, "Lieutenant Yialla how wide is that opening in the door?"

Yialla examined his sensor readings and reported, "One hundred twelve meters at the widest point, sir. It was barely wide enough for the Hydra to go though."

"Well its about to get wider!" Captain Keating sitting back down. She turned the command terminal to her, and brought up a tactical screen upon it. She would have to target the photon torpedoes manually in order to widen the hole enough to allow the Hoyle to pass through. With her targets locked she depressed the execute button, turned to look up at the viewscreen, and watched as four photon torpedoes successively screamed past moored starships on their way to their target, the spacedock door. After the explosions subsided the debris cleared the now significantly wider opening. "Mr. Yialla, report!" she barked.

He reexamined his sensor readings and answered, "The opening is now four hundred eighty meters wide and one hundred forty meters in height. It is barely large enough for us to pass through."

The Captain looked to her Bajoran helmsman and ordered, "Take us out, Ensign T'ralla."

She turned around in her seat and questioned, "Sir?"

The Captain started to become cross, "Do you not understand the order, Ensign? I said take us out!"

Ensign T'ralla tried to explain, "But the opening is barely three meters larger than the height of the ship, that would leave me only…"

The Captain cut her off, "Then we'll all just have to have faith in your thruster control ability. Take us out now, Ensign T'ralla."

T'ralla paused for a second and then turned back to the helm, took a deep breath, arched her eyebrows and then let out softly, "Aye, sir." Having brought up the manual thruster controls on the helm, she worked them adding, "Speed is now one hundred KPH. Five seconds from opening."

Lieutenant Yialla spoke up, "Captain, we are being hailed from the Bajorana's CIC."

Captain Keating replied as the Hoyle began to squeeze through the opening, "We're a little busy here. What do they want?"

Yialla answered, "Using his own words, Captain Marcus would like to know just exactly what in the hell we are doing firing photon torpedoes off in his spacedock."

Captain Keating coolly replied, "Tell him it couldn't be helped and that he can send me the bill. T'ralla, once we've cleared the spacedock doors plot an intercept course for the Hydra."

T'ralla replied, "We've cleared the doors now but there is no sign of the Hydra within this or the surrounding sectors."

Captain Keating calmly replied, "I kind of figured they would cloak as soon as they cleared the station. Mr. Yialla, do you detect any Borg signatures nearby?"

"I am detecting the signatures of the Borg cubes that were surrounding the station approximately four light years from here moving away at high warp."

Captain Keating stood up, "Plot an intercept course and engage at maximum warp. Set to red alert and have all hands report to battle stations."

As the red alert klaxon sounded, Yialla with tones of concern addressed the Captain, "Sir, may I have a word with you?"

She turned and looked at her Andorian tactical officer. She wasn't used to having her subordinates do anything more than follow her orders, never comment or question them. However, Mr. Yialla had gotten her bacon out of the fryer more than once in the past so she answered, "In my ready room Mr. Yialla." With that she turned and quickly made her way to her ready room with Yialla close behind her. The doors quickly closed behind them and she quickly shot out, "In about 10 minutes we are going to be busier than we have ever been before since I took command of this ship. Make it brief, Mr. Yialla. I have other things I need to be attending to."

His antennae nervously twitched for a second as he answered, "You selected me for this position given my experience and training at the Andorian war college. That training tells me that what you are planning to do is foolish and has little chance for success."

She forced a smile, "Try to keep positive, Mr. Yialla, I'm going to be requiring your to focus and be at its best here shortly."

"Over a hundred ships' crews many of them whom were more experienced than this crew and were more than likely at their 'best' died in the line of duty at wolf 359 and the Borg battle of sector zero zero one and they were only facing _one_ Borg cube. We will be a lone ship facing five cubes."

She roared, "I know the odds!" She turned away from him and regained her composure, "Your concerns are noted and will be mentioned in my official logs. In the mean time I will need a battle readiness report from you in five minutes, Lieutenant."  
"Understood, Captain. If I may make one suggestion, however."

"Make it quick."

"We should evacuate all non Starfleet and non-essential personnel to the saucer section incase it becomes necessary to initiate a saucer separation in our up coming battle with the Borg."

Still somewhat irritated at her tactical officer's questioning of her command decision, she gritted her teeth and tried to calmly reply, "Make it so, and alert Commander Evans of our current situation and call him to the bridge. You are dismissed."

Without saying a word Yialla exited the room. She knew he was gone when she heard the doors close. She turned around and walked over to an end table next to one of the chairs in her ready room. She picked up a photo in a frame of an older man in a Starfleet uniform, and smiled at it. She spoke to it as if it was an old friend, "Well father, I could really use one of those late night talks about the life of a Starfleet captain we used to have over a nice hot cup of cocoa. I'm about to face a situation that doesn't seem to promising."

She turned, still holding the frame in her hands, and walked over to the corner of the room. She looked down at the wooden antique rocking horse she had purchased a few days before, and set the photo down upon it. "Unless I pull off the impossible shortly, it would appear that our family line is about to die off."

She fought to hold back her emotions, and tried to hold onto her anger at her daughter or even her duty to bring in the privateers that were an enemy to Starfleet. However, in the end a single tear won out.

***

Dr. Tzu stood in the center of the control center of the Borg cube, watching a Borg female circle her slowly. Tiring of the woman's smirk as she watched her she commented, "I told you all that I wouldn't join you then, and I haven't changed my mind."

The Borg female winked at her, "Resistance is futile, Kimberly."

"Is it? People like Admiral Jean Luc Picard or Janeway would seem to disagree with you." Dr. Tzu remarked.

The female smugly answered, "They faced the common Borg collective native to the Delta quadrant and not we of the Alpha. We're different. We all choose to retain our individuality, but yet on some level, share our collectiveness. We are superior."

"If you are so superior, what do you need me?" Tzu asked.

Irritated the Borg female lashed back, "You know full well what we need of you. What you don't know is why we need the nanoprobes."

Curious, Tzu asked, "And why exactly do you need them?"

A male Borg drone walked into the room and stated, "Ziara, we have the analysis on the Klingon computer core."

"Report." the Borg woman commanded.

The Borg male reported, "Our analysis of the computer core revealed that their sensor readings recorded the U.S.S. Hydra as the ship that Dr. Tzu was beamed off of. Review of the logs indicate that the U.S.S. Hydra was not under mission from Starfleet and was in fact decommissioned several years ago. It is highly probable from the Starfleet communications that we have been observing that the U.S.S. Hydra was under control of individuals not affiliated with Starfleet and not acting in their interests. It is the collective's belief that they were privateers seeking to deliver Dr. Tzu to the Romulans based upon what we can recover from the Klingon ship's logs. There is a ninety three point eight percent possibility that the Satori prototype was onboard the U.S.S. Hydra."

She looked to him inquisitively, "Current location of the Hydra?"

He replied, "The Klingon sensors report that the U.S.S. Hydra proceeded upon a course that led it close to a system's sun, whereupon the sensor readings lost the ship. A large concentration of chronoton particles was recorded near the sun."

"Chronoton particles?" the Borg woman asked. She strolled closer to Dr. Tzu and seemed to gloat with a sneer at Dr. Tzu, "Very clever. Seven of Twelve…" She walked over to the man, took one of his hands into hers, and stroked it gently, "…Paul…"

He seemed preoccupied by her touch for a minute before responding, "Yes, Ziara?"

Her tongue almost caressed his ear as she replied, "Analyze the Klingon computer core. When you have identified the exact course that the Hydra took towards that sun, lay in a course and let the fleet know to come out of hiding and lay in the same course. It would appear that we will need to follow them to when they went and not just where in order to get the nanoprobes."

His mouth gaped open and seemed to spasm for a second until she released him. He replied, "Understood, I will comply." He exited the room quickly.

She turned to Dr. Tzu and said, "Well it would appears that our fleet is going to have to initiate a temporal incursion to gain those nanoprobes."

Dr. Tzu asked, "Fleet?"

Ziara smiled, "Yes, we have a fleet of five cubes and a sphere now."

"I thought Starfleet put a ban upon any of the liberated Borg building anything above a scout ship." Dr. Tzu commented.

"They did. When those of us of the liberated Borg of the Alpha quadrant decided to re-assimilate into a collective of our own, it was decided quickly that some of Starfleet's mandates would have to be overlooked.", Ziara replied.

Dr. Tzu returned a smile, albeit a sarcastic one, "Hence the reason for your outlaw status."

Ziara returned the sarcastic smile, "Yes. But it was necessary for our survival. As you are aware, sentiments for liberated Borg isn't that high among members of the Federation. We have managed to keep the existence of the fleet a secret from Starfleet."

"The sentiments of a few bigots shouldn't drive you to build a small fleet of Borg cubes, Ziara. The Federation is no threat to your collective or to the independent liberated Borg of the Alpha quadrant." Dr. Tzu responded.

"The Federation?" Ziara began to laugh uncontrollably. She managed to regain herself a bit and added, "If the Federation was what I was worrying about I wouldn't need those nanoprobes that your prototype has developed."

Dr. Tzu was confused, "So what do you need them for?"

A look of seriousness came upon Ziara's face, "We need them for protection. You see, we have been in contact with liberated Borg ships in the Delta Quadrant. It would appear that the standing directive of the Borg Queen to eliminate all independent drones still stands."

Dr. Tzu asked, "The transwarp hub in that quadrant has been destroyed, they have no way here. Why should you or I for that matter worry about them?"

Ziara raised an eye ridge and responded, "You share our technology in your body, but you have really no idea what it is like to be a part of the collective…"

"What do you mean?"

Ziara replied, "If you knew the Borg like I do…been a part of them like I have…then you would know….know what they are capable of."

Irritated at the lack of a direct response, Dr. Tzu asked, "Know what?"

Ziara walked up to Dr. Tzu and touched her cheek with her hand, "The transwarp hub in the Delta Quadrant will be back up and running in less than a week, and payback to the Federation is rumored to be their first destination. So you see, I need those nanoprobes to protect my collective from annihilation and I will do anything to get them."

***

"Well you said that you needed to get off of the station and onboard the Hoyle. I mean you are just lucky that I know my mom's command codes and could get us onboard without the ship's sensors noticing. My abilities is probably why you sent the message to me asking me to join you.", Nancy of the past replied. Nancy smiled at Roberts and began to rub his back in an embrace. She leaned forward and whispered into his ear, "But somehow I don't think that's the only reason, sailor." And with that she squeezed his bottom.

Captain Roberts nervously replied as he looked around the plush quarters, "Yes I did. But I didn't mean for you to beam us to the captain's quarters. No offense but if your mom is to come back here she probably won't be happy to see me."

After tugging at his earlobe with her teeth she responded, "Oh Wesley? I didn't know you'd ever met her, let alone have the chance to get on her bad side."

Trying hard to both resist her advances and at the same time to not create a paradox by revealing information about the future he replied, "Oh well I've met her and let's just say that she doesn't like me that much."

She kissed Roberts passionately on the mouth and worked her way to his neck. She let up as she backed him towards the quarter's bed and began to loosen his belt, "I'm not surprised. It doesn't take much to piss in her corn flakes."

Quivering at her uninvited touch into his uniform and onto his skin he managed to croak out, "Ah Nancy, where exactly is Quarn and the rest of my crew?"

She ran her free hand though his hair. After working her way from one side of his face, round his temples, and back down to the other side, she answered breathing slowly yet heavily, "I beamed them all to the battle bridge's ready room on deck eight. It's never used so I figured they would be safe there." She commenced to grab the back of his head and probe his mouth with her tongue.

Roberts managed to break free long enough to comment, "Ah, Nancy, I don't think we should be doing this."

"After all the correspondence we had during your incarceration at the Adares Penal Colony, don't think that I am not going to make you live up to all your promises. Besides that, I was one of the few members of your former shipmates who stood up for you and that kept in contact with you after the trial. You owe me." She pushed him down onto the bed landing on top of him. She felt her hand down lower and lower until she had her goal in hand, "Now keep that gangway extended, and prepare to dock with my station, fly boy. I've waited to long for this."

Roberts was waiting for a transporter beam or for Captain Keating to come in and save him from this situation that could create a paradox in his timeline.

It never happened.

Five minutes is all it took.

First his world rocked and then the Hoyle's spaceframe did as well.

The definite sound of weapons hitting the shields and rocking the ship could be heard and felt.

The Hoyle was under attack.

* End Chapter Eleven * 

Colossal Climaxes, Batman! Will Captain Keating survive taking on five Borg cubes? Will Ziara convince Dr. Tzu to join her in the collective? What about Nancy's baby? And just who the heck will launder the stain's out of Nancy's mom's bed sheets?

To get the answers to these questions you will have to tune in for the next installment because this story is…

To be continued…

P.S.—the I would love any questions or comments that you all have for me you can either post them on the review page or email them to me at: mojo@iowatelecom.net


	12. Chapter Twelve

DISCLAIMER:  
  
"Star Trek" and all associated names and characters, with the exceptions of the ones created by myself for this story, are © Paramount. I am a fan of Gene Roddenberry's dream and just wish to keep it alive so that tomorrow's youth may gain by it as I have. This is fan fiction; there is no infringement of copyright intended with this story, nor have I written it for personal financial gain. So relax, engage at full warp and enjoy!

(Note—Yet another late night…yet another update to post. Just to let you all know, when I post updates, most of the time they are just spell checked only first drafts, so I apologize if there are any mistakes in them. But I hope that you can muddle through my sticky prose to have a good time reading it. I promise that the plot line and twists to this story do have meaning to the story…even despite my limitations as a writer plotting is one thing that I think I am good at…so relax….[Lord knows I can't. I gave a back rub for 45 mins tonight for a friend and just wound up horny as hell as a result!!!]…set your phasers for stun and enjoy!!!!)

Chapter Twelve

The Doctor had never been on the bridge before, and as the Hydra's EMH he was not quite sure what he should be doing while he was there. He sat in front of the tactical console totally in confusion as to how the systems worked. None of the command staff had returned from the station before they had departed and the bridge was devoid of any biological life. He turned his head to Athena who was sitting in the captain's chair and asked, "So my medical expertise will be required on the bridge for exactly what reason again?"

She had a blank look on her face. She seemed to be gazing past the on rushing stars that were on the viewscreen. She was in complete control of all ship's systems and was actively coordinating them while she replied calmly, "That isn't why I have you here, Doctor."

"Oh?" the Doctor smirked, "I take it you will be requiring another medicinal foot massage once you've disabled the Borg cubes that are pursuing us?"

Still looking ahead in her trance like gaze she managed a quick smile and replied, "Well I wasn't thinking along those lines, Doctor. However, if we survive this, I think I'll hold you to that offer."

Knowing that his sense of humor had backfired upon him once again with Athena he inquired with a hint of irritation, "So what exactly am I doing here?"

She broke her hollow gaze for a second, turned to him, grinned, and said, "You're about to find out."

"What is that suppose…" the Doctor froze up as he felt the algorithms of his program being reset. He disappeared and then re-materialized back in the seat of the tactical station. Somewhat stunned from his uninvited re-initialization his eyes came into focus upon the tactical console. He began to tap at the controls, "There is a slight imbalance in one of the shield resonance generators, I am correcting the problem now." As he tapped the keys to correct the problem it hit him. He stood up his mouth gaping open slightly with a shocked look on his face. He turned to Athena and asked, "How did I know that? Ship's operations in general let alone tactical knowledge is not a part of my programming."

She returned her expressionless gaze back forward and replied, "It's simple, Doctor, I needed you to go beyond your programming, therefore I modified some of your programming and database. During the midst of the fight we are about to enter into I may require you to perform tasks for me as I will be quite busy piloting the ship, maintaining all of the ship's systems, and compensating and repairing damage from attack. Simply put I may need you to operate the weapons systems when I have too much on my hands to do it."

The doctor began to shake his head, "But my ethical subroutines will not allow me to take a life. Even if they are Borg they are still a lifeform and my programming will not allow me to destroy even one of them, let alone an entire cube of them. I would be unable to act, and would be useless to you."

She answered, "Your ethical subroutines had already degraded somewhat due to the amount of service that was required of you when the Hydra was on active duty. When you came into conflict from the possibility of causing the possible death of Nancy's child those very same subroutines were all but shattered. It would have been only a matter of time before a cascade failure in your network would have caused you to cease to be at all. Luckily for you I was able to stop the cascade when Tabok tried to erase you, and took the time to repair your programming. But this time I modified your ethical subroutines so that you would not have a problem like that again. So you see, Doctor, while I didn't turn you into a homicidal manic with the bloodlust of a Klingon warrior, I did make it possible for you to take a life if the situation warrants it."

In angered shock the Doctor shot off, "You had no right to modify my programming in that way!"

She stood up and came to life matching his tones, "I had to!" Still steaming she sat back down and explained, "My creator, Dr. Tzu is onboard one of the Borg cubes. They have a dampening field around her so I cannot fully link up to her mind, but I know it is her." She sank her face into her hands for a few seconds. She looked back up and there were a few tears in her eyes. Her roar had turned into a whimper when she continued, "I need your help to get her back, Doctor." She wiped away the tears and in the same tone pleaded, "Please."

Stunned at her outburst of emotion, the Doctor stood speechless for a moment. He turned away from her and sat back down in the tactical station. He tapped away at the controls and then reported, "All weapon systems are online and fully operational." He looked back at her and beamed a warm reassuring smile, "Shall I deploy the armor?"

New life returning to her face, she smiled and replied, "Thank you."

***

The inertial dampers were overloading with the pounding the ship was taking. The last barrage nearly threw everyone to the floor. Standing at the tactical station of the Hoyle's battle bridge Quarn shook his head and commented, "Rules of acquisition number two hundred seventy seven: Anything worth fighting for is worth hiding from."

Sitting in the command chair Roberts replied, "Now Quarn try to keep an open mind about all of this."

Tabok whom was operating the console of a station near the emergency turbolift doors turned to Roberts and reported, "He may have some reason to be concerned. Although the Hydra was able to destroy two of the cubes using some sort of modified quantum torpedoes that seemed to be emitting an interphasic signature, thus cutting the number of cubes we are facing to three and thereby increasing our odds for survival, it would appear that Captain Keating is unwilling to accept the losses this ship has suffered thus far and is electing to continue with the fight."

"How is the Hydra holding up?"

The bulkheads and deck plates quaked with another volley of Borg weapons fire. The Hydra's young helmsman, Mr. Williams, who was working a station next to Tabok, turned and reported, "Sir, the Hydra has taken quite a beating, but that armor that they generated over the hull seems to be absorbing quite a bit of the Borg weapons fire. As Far as I can tell they are in better shape then we here on the Hoyle."

Nancy of the past who was sitting at the helm, turned around to Roberts and asked, "Wesley, I thought that you were going to wait for me to join up with you before making a selection of what class of ship to commandeer? I take it the plan changed and the Hydra is our ship?"

Roberts nervously answered, "Well kind of, Nancy. There are some things that you don't know."

With irritation Nancy asked, "Well I am a part of this team now and I think that I deserve to be let in on everything."

Facing the risk of polluting the timeline farther, Roberts began to respond, "That's true Nancy, however, there are some things that I just can't…"

The ship rocked the hardest it had ever rocked since the Hoyle had engaged the Borg cubes. Roberts was thrown from his chair to the deck, as Quarn struggled to keep upright with a firm grip on the tactical station. The station that Mr. Williams was working at exploded in a flaming ball of plasma sending him to the floor and forcing Tabok to jump away to safety.

As Roberts got to his feet several smaller explosions could be felt originating from several decks beneath them. Roberts looked over to the fallen Mr. Williams. Williams was moaning incoherently, which relieved Captain Roberts to know that the young helmsman was still alive. Tabok leaned down to attend to him. Roberts barked out, "Mr. Tabok, report!"

"Mr. Williams has sustained second degree plasma burns. His condition is not life threatening, however, I would recommend medical treatment for him as soon as possible." Tabok answered.

Williams was coming to. When he was fully conscious he started to flail his hands around in the air above him nearly hitting Tabok in the face. He exclaimed, "I can't see!"

Tabok grasped his hands and laid them down onto his chest and reassured him, "Relax, Mr. Williams. The flash from the plasma discharge has temporarily blinded you. I assure you that your vision will return."

Williams took a couple of deep breaths and replied, "Okay, thanks Tabok."

Quarn spoke up, "Oh this is getting better hoo-man, They have just done evacuated everyone from the stardrive section and have blown the emergency saucer separation explosive bolts. From what I am seeing the warp core is about to overload in five minutes."

Shocked by this new news Roberts commanded as he headed for the turbolift doors, "Alright listen up! Tabok, assist Mr. Williams. It would appear that we are going to have to abandon ship. We need to get to the nearest shuttle bay and override the security…" He was cut off mid sentence as the turbolift doors in front of him whisked open.

He took two short steps back.

Captain Keating took three steps forward onto the battle bridge, crossed her arms, and said, "This is a unexpected surprise. I made my entire crew leave in the saucer section and was coming down here alone to pilot the stardrive section and make a suicide run into one of the Borg cubes. You see apparently in a fool's attempt I thought I was chasing you down in the Hydra, and helping you from being destroyed by Unimatrix alpha and wound up having my crew take heavy casualties and my ship all but destroyed. At the risk of sounding uninformed, Mr. Roberts, do you mind telling me just what the hell you are doing on my ship?"

***

The members of the Romulan Praetorate were seated around the inner chamber's council table looking to the viewscreen on the wall. The eldest Romulan setting at the head of the table, who was the daise'Fvillha of the Praetorate, ordered to a subordinate, "Put the transmission through."

The viewscreen faded from a picture of the emblem of the Romulan Star Empire to that of the image of Major Y'pel. The elder Romulan looked to Major Y'pel and grimly stated, "Formalities aside, I trust you have good news for me, Major."

Without any trace of emotion she replied, "We were unable to retrieve the prototype or Dr. Tzu from the Klingons. We discovered the remains of the Klingon vessel several light years away from our rendezvous point with the Hydra. After a detailed scan of the wreckage we could not find any traces of Borg signatures. I am afraid that Dr. Tzu was not onboard the Klingon vessel at the time of its destruction."

The elder Romulan's grimness seemed to turn even more to stone, "I see. Were you able to ascertain whom took her from the Klingons and where they are headed?"

Y'pel reported, "A scan of the surrounding space revealed Ferengi warp signatures leading off towards Ferengi controlled space. However, a more detailed scan of the signature revealed that it was not genuine. Whomever 'retrieved' Dr. Tzu off of that ship went out of their way to mask their own signature and lead us off the real trail. I am afraid that we are at an impasse to locate either the prototype or Dr. Tzu."

"Regretful but understood, Major Y'pel. You have your orders for this contingency, carry them out." The elder Romulan said motioning for one of his subordinates to close the transmission. The viewscreen cut back to the picture of the Romulan Star Empire emblem.

One of the younger members of the Praetorate leaned back in his chair and commented, "Well that's it then. The lunacy of this plan for breaking our peace with the Federation has finally been undone. It's over."

The tension in the air couldn't be any higher as the elder Romulan replied, "Over? This is only an unfortunate event in our planned invasion of the Federation. The plan will not only continue but it will be accelerated. Right now Major Y'pel is instructing Commander Teral to plot a course to meet up with the cloaked invasion fleet near the borders of Romulan and Federation space. Once they arrive they will lead the fleet into Federation space and take control of every orbital facility at every key Federation world. Once this orbital domination is attained they will begin to eliminate key production facilities and work in hunter killer teams to eliminate the threat of Starfleet Vessels. My plan is far from over."

The young Praetorate member glared at the elder and responded, "You're mad! Without the Satori prototype being used to upgrade the android attack force this plan cannot succeed. The plan's success was keyed upon us acquiring that technology and the only reason the rest of the Praetorate agreed to go along with your plan. Sure over the last couple of decades the new peace with the federation has been strenuous at best, but unless total victory can be assured we cannot risk a war with the Federation. You have no right to accelerate and okay the attack upon the Federation without consulting the rest of the Praetorate."

The elder Romulan stood up bracing his hands against the table, stiffening his shoulders in an imposing pose. He arched his thick brows, flared his nostrils, and growled, "My decisions are made to further the interests of the Romulan people!"

The younger Romulan seemed to sneer as he replied, "Personally I think your actions here prove that you have your own agenda of revenge to gain upon the Federation and has little to do with your thoughts of the Romulan people." The younger Romulan swiveled around to the rest of the Praetorate. He spoke up, "I call for a vote of consensus to repeal the daise'Fvillha's orders for the invasion fleet."

Smoke seemed to shoot out of the elder Romulan's nostrils as he flamed out, "Fine." He drew a disrupter, quickly caught a bead on the young Praetorate member, and fired. A look of horror came over the younger Praetorate member's face as the disrupter beam hit his chest sending him spinning out of his chair and onto the floor, dead. The elder Romulan with silence in the room walked over to the corpse on the floor and rolled the dead Romulan over onto his back to verify the kill. He looked up to the rest of the Praetorate and said with a stone cold tone and expressionless face, "A vote has been called. Who here opposes my modification of the existing plan to invade Starfleet and invade them immediately?"

Not a single voice spoke up in dissension. 

***

"Impressive adaptations." Ziara smiled as she watched the battle with the Hydra continue. For a Borg she didn't have many implants and augmentations that would hide what race she was. She was undoubtedly human. She looked away from the holographic projection of the battle and strolled leisurely up to Dr. Tzu, "The last time a Defiant class starship faced a Borg cube it lasted mere minutes and that was a single cube and the Defiant vessel had an armada fighting along side of it. Your assimilation of this ship and the adaptations of its technology are impressive. In fact some of the technology displayed here today would seem to be unknown to Starfleet let alone our collective."

With sarcastic smugness Dr. Tzu responded, "What can I say, Athena is quite a resourceful gal."

"Your creation has displayed that indeed." Ziara commented. She looked back to the projection of the firefight and continued, "I can only hope that the prototype survives the destruction of the Hydra. We would be able to extract the nanoprobes from even a destroyed unit, but it would be a shame to destroy such a fine creation. If she could be captured intact, her technological distinctiveness would be a valuable addition to Unimatrix alpha." She turned back to Dr. Tzu, stoked her cheek with one hand and with an almost seductive voice said, "I don't want to destroy the Hydra and that wonderful creation of yours. I need the nanoprobes to protect my collective." She leaned in forward and stroked one of Dr. Tzu's earlobes with her tongue proceeding to whisper, "The hive mind would only be enriched by your creation and your own mind joining with us. We are not an emotionless dispassionate collective only bent upon domination of the universe. We seek to liberate those that are willing to join with us. Join us Doctor, I don't want to have to destroy you and your creation to get what I need."

Dr. Tzu pushed her back and scowled, "It's true I was never fully integrated into the hive mind of the Borg. But I am my own person and I intend to stay that way, and I know for damn sure that Athena has those same sentiments burned into her positronic network."

Ziara offered a sinister smile and then turned to walk away back towards the holographic projection of the battle, "Well if you won't give in to the voice of reason perhaps I can sweeten the deal a bit." The view of the battle cut away to an internal view of a Borg maturation chamber. A fetus of a humanoid child was developing at an accelerated rate inside it. Ziara seemed to sneer as she looked back to Dr. Tzu and asked, "Do you really think that the almighty Federation would have allowed you to keep this child?"

Dr. Tzu felt her stomach, a sudden feeling of emptiness grew inside her. "When?" she asked.

Leaving the holographic projection of the child up, she walked back over to Dr. Tzu and answered, "Before you recovered consciousness and woke up here I had drones remove the developing fetus from your womb and had it placed into a maturation chamber. The child is quite safe and will make a welcome member of our collective."

Even though the child was not her own, maternal instincts won out. Not wanting Nancy's child to live a life as a Borg drone for any collective, Dr. Tzu dropped her head and asked, "What do you want?"

***

"Three minutes until warp core breech." The computer calmly announced as the klaxon rang out.

Roberts and Captain Keating had stepped into the ready room alone at Roberts prompting despite her objections. As soon as the doors closed behind them she shot out, "I don't have time for any of this. I want Nancy and the rest of your crew onboard escape pods and jettisoning away from what is left of my ship now! The saucer section will pick them up and take them back to face justice in the future. As for you, I expect you to stay here and act like a man who once had honor in Starfleet's eyes and help me take out at least one more of those Borg cubes."

"That's where the problem comes in." Roberts responded.

"Explain!" Keating crossly barked.

Roberts pointed to the door, "That Nancy out there is not the woman you think she is."

Keating threw her head back, "Don't I know it! As if sleeping with my fiancée out of some twisted sense of revenge against me is not enough, she joins up with a band of renegades like you. You would think that if you gave birth to someone that you would know him or her intimately well. Well I guess that isn't true in my daughter's case!"

Roberts quickly explained, "That is not what I mean. That Nancy that is out there is not of our timeline. She is the Nancy of the timeline we are in. She doesn't belong going up for trial because if she does then the timeline will be altered and more than probably do great damage to what we call our present."

Captain Keating darted her eyes to the door for a second, "Are you telling me that the Nancy who is out there now has yet to assist you in the theft of Federation property?"

"Two minutes until warp core breech." The computer calmly prompted.

"Exactly. The Nancy that you have been pursuing with us is still onboard the hydra." Roberts answered.

Captain Keating drew in a deep breath though her nose, turned her look away from Roberts for a second in thought, and then turned back to him with an imperatively serious gaze. She simply commanded, "Suggestions?"

His long unused Starfleet honed reflexes made him almost instantly answer, "We plot a collision course with the nearest Borg cube and evacuate all personnel into escape pods. We make sure that Nancy is in a pod by herself. We then send out a distress call for the saucer section alerting them to pick us up and relay an order to Captain Marcus of the Bajorana to come pick up Nancy's pod and return her to her ship of this timeline."

Somewhat shocked by his professionalism, she paused for a second before heading for the door and replying, "Agreed."

As they both walked back out onto the battle bridge they both noticed at the same time what was missing. It was Captain Keating that spoke up first, "Where the hell is my daughter?"

Roberts looked to Quarn, "Where did Nancy go?"

Quarn responded, "She analyzed some engineering data and then said she had the solution to be able to eject the warp core safely. She got in the turbolift and headed down for engineering."

A look of disgust came over Roberts's face, "Quarn how could you let her do that? If something happens to her in this timeline it will alter our present when we return to it."

Quarn waved his hands, "Hey hoo-man, I live in the now. There are two things I have learned that have kept me alive for this long. One, if someone is willing to make a sacrifice to save your skin free of charge…let them. Two, when it comes to that particular female, past, present, or future, just let her have her way."

Captain Keating turned to Roberts, "Well it would appear that your suggested plan is not going to be so simple."

Roberts took a deep breath and then commanded, "Quarn…Mr. Tabok…assist Mr. Williams to get into an escape pod and then abandon ship. Contact the saucer section of the Hoyle to pick you up. If Captain Keating and I are able to get to Nancy in time we will meet up with you in a bit."

Captain Keating and Roberts had made their way to the turbolift and were already inside when the blinded Mr. Williams, who had just made it to his feet, responded, "If you're staying I am staying, sir."

Roberts said coolly as the turbolift doors closed, "Quarn…Mr. Tabok you have your orders."

***

* End Chapter Twelve * 

Dynamic Dominating Drones, Batman! Have Ziara and her collective won out over Dr. Tzu? Will Nancy's baby be assimilated into the hive mind? Will Nancy of the past's foolhardy attempt at saving the Hoyle wind up in her death and the alteration of the timeline? Can the federation survive both an invasion by Romulan androids and the common Borg collective? And just what the heck was "Zeus" that was referred to in the last chapter?

To get the answers to these questions you will have to tune in for the next installment because this story is…

To be continued…

P.S.—the I would love any questions or comments that you all have for me you can either post them on the review page or email them to me at: mojo@iowatelecom.net


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